The 39-year-old man arrested last week in connection with the death of 24-year-old Shoaib Khan now claims Khan was dead when he left him in Strovolos on January 6, police representative Yiannos Yiannakos said in court on Tuesday.

Speaking at the remand hearing of a 37-year-old man arrested on Monday, Yiannakos said the 39-year-old “changed his claim” when taken back to Potamia while being questioned by the police.

The older suspect said he was speaking to Khan while driving from Potamia to Strovolos, but that Khan was not responding.

He added that around four minutes after leaving Potamia, he determined that Khan was dead, before adding that he had left him dead in Strovolos.

At the 39-year-old’s remand hearing last week, Yiannakos said the suspect had said that Khan was “alive, walking, but looked like he was drunk” when he was left in Strovolos.

The 37-year-old was remanded in custody for eight days and is accused of having aided and abetted an illegal entry into the Republic of Cyprus.

Yiannakos said later in the hearing that a Pakistani national who resides permanently in the north is “likely the head of a large ring which is smuggling immigrants from the north into the Republic.

“According to the same information, the individual owns three vehicles, which are used on behalf of the smuggling ring,” he added, saying that Khan was “likely a member of the smuggling ring”.

He added that the 39-year-old “admitted” he is a member of a smuggling ring, and made “specific reference” to a man named Ali, with whom he goes to the Potamia area to transport people into the Republic, and has done so since October last year.

Yiannakos said that on the day of the incident the 39-year-old received a phone call from Ali, telling him to pick him up from his home in Nicosia so they could go to Potamia to pick up some migrants.

The 39-year-old reportedly added that they then stopped at a kiosk in Potamia and Ali got into a white vehicle, before the two men in the two cars met a black pickup truck. He then conversed with the people inside, telling them which vehicle to get into to be transported to Nicosia.

Yiannakos said that after that conversation, Khan got into the back of the 39-year-old’s car, before the suspect then spotted a white pickup truck belonging to the police. He then immediately heard two gunshots.

“Upon hearing the shots, the white vehicle moved at speed towards the police vehicle with the intention of hitting it, while the 39-year-old then did the same,” Yiannakos said.

He explained that the white vehicle is registered as owned by a woman, but it was being driven on the day by the 37-year-old suspect, and was later found outside his home. Additionally, he said, a hole was located on its right side which appears to have been caused by a firearm.

Meanwhile, there has as yet been no movement regarding the Republic of Cyprus’ police’s request for the Turkish Cypriot authorities to hand over four people named as suspects in the case.

The four people who the Republic have requested be handed over are 62-year-old Halil Alaslan, 31-year-old Coskun Alaslan, 22-year-old Atilla Alaslan, and a fourth individual who was arrested by the Turkish Cypriot police while trying to leave the island from Kyrenia port last week.

The fourth individual was not initially named as a suspect by the Republic’s police, but, according to the Cyprus News Agency, “has been of concern” to the Republic’s police in the past.

At his latest hearing in court on Friday, a Turkish Cypriot police representative said his car had been found with a bullet hole in it, and had been repainted after the incident, with the intention of covering the bullet hole. He was remanded in custody for six days.

Meanwhile, both Halil Alaslan and Coskun Alaslan have publicly denied all wrongdoing, speaking to the media on Wednesday.

Shoaib Khan was found dead in the Nicosia suburb of Strovolos on January 6, but was among a group of third-country nationals attempting to cross the buffer zone in the village of Potamia during an incident in which police said they fired four shots at two vehicles.

The Turkish Cypriot authorities had found that Khan had entered the north on November 29, 2021 on a 60-day tourist visa and had never left through any of the north’s regulated ports of entry.