Two arrested for assisting illegal entry, one arrest for illegal stay

Police arrested three people in Nicosia late on Tuesday on suspicion of assisting illegal entry into the republic and illegal stay into the republic.

Following a tip-off, officers found a car with two passengers, aged 25 and 22, around 8.40pm in a village of the Nicosia district.

Police identified the two men as residents of the republic.

But during a search in their car officers found a third man, aged 25, in the boot. According to police, the man was a third-country national who arrived on the island through the north.

All three were arrested and detained at the Kokkinotrimithias police station.

Police said that according to the evidence gathered so far, the two legal residents appeared to have entered into the buffer zone and then returned with four other people. Three of whom had fled to the government-controlled areas.