Three arrested for kidnapping north murder suspects (Updated)

Police in the Republic on Wednesday arrested three men for the kidnap of the two men who are suspected of murdering 45-year-old Ayca Alav in northern Nicosia.

The police announced that they had arrested the trio, aged 37, 46, and 47, regarding “a case of abduction with the purpose of secret and unjust imprisonment”.

They later confirmed to the Cyprus Mail that the three were arrested on suspicion that they abducted “the two victims [who] … appear to be the same people who are suspected of having committed a murder in northern Nicosia in December.”

In other words, the three arrested are the same people who brought the two murder suspects to the north after they escaped to the Republic.

Reports of the two suspects’ transfer potentially not having been above board surfaced in the Turkish Cypriot media on Wednesday morning.

The Turkish Cypriot police had said on Tuesday that the pair had been “identified and arrested in Pyla”, though reports surfacing on Wednesday told a different story.

Turkish Cypriot newspaper Yeni Duzen reported that the pair were “smuggled from the south to the north, trusting two Turkish Cypriots who they thought would smuggle them to Egypt.”

They added that the Turkish Cypriot police were “aware of the process” and waiting near Pyla to be handed the suspects.

However, the Republic’s police had initially told the Cyprus Mail they had no knowledge of the case or the Turkish Cypriot-led operation to find and apprehend the two suspects in the Republic.

In addition, a spokesman for the justice ministry told the Cyprus Mail they also had no knowledge of the case and declined to pass comment on the matter.

After handing the suspects over to the police, reports say the two Turkish Cypriots returned to the Republic.

Co-chairman of the Bicommunal Technical Committee on Crime Sali Can Doratli said his committee had taken “no action” on the matter.

In essence, therefore, the arrests likely took place outside of the agreed upon structures regarding fugitives who cross the Green Line.

One of the Turkish Cypriots involved in the operation, Huseyin Demirel, filmed the handover of the suspects to the Turkish Cypriot police. In the footage, he is seen with the suspects in his own personal vehicle.

Another, Ufuk Hasan, said he had been a part of a “secret mission” which lasted for four or five days. He added that he “gained the trust” of the suspects before contacting the Turkish Cypriot police and taking them to Pyla.

He said the suspects had not been returned to the north “with identity cards” and that the Turkish Cypriot police had not moved into the south within the scope of the operation.

The police’s investigation into the matter is ongoing.

Ayca Alav was found dead at the Hit Bit suitcase shop in north Nicosia, which she owned, on December 22.

At an earlier court hearing of two men who helped the murder suspects escape to the Republic, police inspector Huseyin Zaifer said the pair who committed the murder accosted Alev at the Hit Bet shop and tied her hands and feet behind her back with a seatbelt and an antenna cable.

Then, he said, they covered her face with duct tape, killing her.

After having killed her, the pair made their way to the bureau de change Alav owned, which is located near the Kyrenia gate, from where they stole an “undetermined amount” of cash.