Three more suspects remanded in Lakatamia murder attempt case (Updated)

Three additional suspects were remanded for eight days on Tuesday after being arrested in connection with a Lakatamia attempted gangland murder committed last month. The court’s decision brings the total number of suspects in remand up to nine.

Police announced that the two suspects, men aged 43 and 28, had been arrested on Monday for the case, while the third, a 40-year-old man, was re-arrested for the same case.

In the early hours the Nicosia district court had remanded six of the total of nine suspects for a second time, following a spate of arrests on April 27.

The victim, Demetris Andronikou, aka Demetroui, was shot at from a motorbike in broad daylight on April 23, sustaining wounds to the neck, and is still in critical but stable condition in hospital, police spokesman Christos Andreou told the CyBC.

According to Andreou, the marathon 15-hour court session, lasting from 10am on Monday until 1am on Tuesday when the decision was announced, was a drawn-out affair in which investigation findings to date were presented by the CID, along with next steps to be taken justifying the remand order request, which had the chance to be countered by the suspects’ lawyers.

The first six to be remanded on Tuesday, together with one of the three others, were already being held in an eight-day detention. The suspects arrested are of various nationalities, with one Greek Cypriot, the police spokesman said.

One of the suspects is a convict being held in the central prisons, Andreou stated.

According to Philenews, he is a 43-year-old sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2021 for the attempted murder of Nikos Rodotheou in Nicosia in November 2018.

A suspect of Romanian origin who had been included in the April arrests was later released. Police had linked him with the alleged shooter, even though he had stated that he did not know him.

Information presented by the Nicosia CID in the context of its request for the renewed detention of the remaining nine suspects, ranging in age from 22 to 45, mainly concerned the 45-year-old, according to the daily, against whom written testimony has been secured.

The testimony in question allegedly reveals that the 45-year-old congratulated another (sixth) arrested suspect of Arab origin, who shot Andronikou three times, paying him €10,000 euros through a third person and promising the alleged executor a sum of €1,500 monthly, for life.

The 45-year-old was presented by the police as having taken over as Nicosia gang leader last autumn and embroiled in a conflict with the 34-year-old victim, who was attempting to control properties, primarily betting agencies.

The fifth suspect, initially pegged by Nicosia CID as the driver of the scooter-type motorcycle on which the executioner was riding, was presented as an accomplice. He allegedly tried to shoot the 34-year-old on two separate occasions, but hesitated, whereupon the sixth suspect took over the job.

The police’s request for remands, read in full in court, comprised a summary of the roles each of the main suspects allegedly had in the commission of the crime.

Police previously stated the case to be intricate and complex with Andreou on Tuesday saying “serious” evidence had been sent for tests and the exact motive would be announced following completion of the investigation.

Reading her decision after midnight, the judge Niovi Petridou said that the police witness had made a good impression and his testimony was solid.

The weapon used had so far remained elusive and a burned motorbike reported found in Aglantzia was being investigated for links to the case.

The attempted murder took place in Nicosia’s suburb of Anthoupoli while the 34-year-old target was riding his motorcycle away from a police station. He was shot in the neck by a man who was a passenger on another motorcycle.

The victim at the time was reported as “well known” to police.