STATE pathologist, Sophocles Sophocleous was the latest witness to testify at Larnaca Criminal Court on Friday in the case of the five murdered bodyguards in Ayia Napa last year.
Sophocleous analysed the findings of his autopsy of three of the five victims, Giorgos Georgiou, Marios Karaoli and Marsel Aourel Koleasa.
According to the state pathologist, both Koleasa and Karaoli died from internal bleeding caused by the shooting. Koleasa was shot in the stomach and arm and had a bullet removed from his lung after he had died.
Sophocleous said Georgiou’s body had bullet entry wounds on both the left side and right side of his body. He was the only one of the five victims who managed to exit the car during the night of June 23. According to the witness the right-sided entry wounds indicate Georgiou was shot after he exited the vehicle.
According to Sophocleous and second pathologist Nicholas Charalambous, Georgiou was driving the car, Philippos Loucaides was in the passenger seat and Marios Karaoli and the two Romanian men were sitting in the back seats when the shooting began.
The pathologists’ findings indicated that the shooter appeared from the left side of the car on Katalymaton Street in the centre of Ayia Napa and started firing at the five men in the vehicle.
Taxi-driver Giorgis Mitsis who picked up the two suspects, Demetris Mamalikopoulos, 29, and Anastasios Tsehilides, 41, from Larnaca airport and took them to Ayia Napa also testified yesterday in court. He recognised both Greek nationals and confirmed he had taken them to Ayia Napa on the day of the murders. He told the court they had exited the taxi outside an unknown bakery.
The two men, who pleaded not guilty, have been accused of five counts of murder, one for each victim on the night of June 23 of last year. They are accused of the premeditated murder of Philippos Loucaides, 33, Marios Karaoli, 28, Giorgos Georgiou, 35 and Romanians Georgian Katalin Koman, 25 and Marcel Aourel Koleasa, 33, in a central square of Ayia Napa. Four of the victims were working for local businessman Phanos Kalopsidiotis, who Famagusta police believe was the culprits’ real target.
