A bullet casing was found in the car driven by the 37-year-old suspect in the case surrounding the death of 24-year-old Shoaib Khan in the buffer zone-adjacent village of Potamia, police representative Yiannos Yiannakos said on Friday.
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 Potamia.
Speaking in court upon the expiry of the other suspect, the 39-year-old man’s initial remand, Yiannakos said the bullet casing was found in the white Honda Fit hatchback which the 37-year-old had driven from Potamia to the buffer zone alongside a man named “Ali”, and which was later found outside the 37-year-old’s home in Limassol.
Yiannakos said that once the vehicle had been located and seized, it was examined, with a bullet hole being found on its rear. Further examinations found that the bullet had entered through the rear of the vehicle, passed through various parts of the vehicle, and ended up behind the driver’s seat.
The white car is now the third vehicle related to the case to have been found to have been damaged by gunfire, with the 39-year-old’s hire car, the car in which Khan died, having had a bullet hole in its boot and in the seat on which he was sat, and a car having been stopped by Turkish Cypriot police at the Kyrenia port with a bullet hole in its side.
Aside from the bullet holes, Yiannakos explained on Friday that the police are still looking for four people, three Turkish Cypriots and one Pakistani national, in connection with the case.
He said the investigation into the matter is still “at an early stage”, and that a total of 77 statements have been taken so far, with around 100 more yet to come, with the aim of “establishing the suspect’s relationship with an illegal smuggling ring”.
He added that CCTV footage between Potamia and Nicosia, and between Potamia and Limassol, to see what can be discerned, while also orders have also been issued to disclose telecommunications data – something from which he said “developments may arise”.
The three Turkish Cypriots who have been officially named as suspects are 62-year-old Halil Alaslan, 31-year-old Coskun Alaslan, and 22-year-old Atilla Alaslan, all of whom are in the north and none of whom have been arrested.
Both Halil Alaslan and Coskun Alaslan have publicly denied all wrongdoing, and the Turkish Cypriot police have instead arrested a fourth man, whose car was at the Kyrenia port with a bullet hole in its side. He was attempting to leave the island.
He appeared in court in the north on Thursday and was released on bail.
At a previous hearing, Yiannakos had said the 39-year-old suspect had “admitted” to being a member of a smuggling ring, and that he had made “specific reference” to “Ali”, saying he is someone 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.
The 39-year-old had initially told police that Khan was “alive, walking, but looked like he was drunk” when he was left in Strovolos, but according to Yiannakos on Tuesday, he has “changed his claim” and now claims he left Khan dead in Strovolos.
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