Huseyin Mavideniz, the 29-year-old British national who was killed after a fight outside a bar in Trikomo in 2023, “might have had a chance to survive” if he had received medical attention sooner, forensic specialist Idris Deniz told a court in the town.

Deniz was called as a witness for the prosecution in the case against the two men who stand accused of murdering Mavideniz, and explained that Mavideniz “remained alive for some time after falling to the ground”.

“His death was not sudden, but occurred as a result of a slow, gradual process,” he said.

He said that the first blow struck by one of the two defendants was actually a strike with the palm of his hand, and that Mavideniz had first hit the defendant back, before losing his balance and “hitting his head hard on the ground”.

On this matter, he said that Mavideniz had “around 114 milligrams” of alcohol per decilitre of blood in his body – more than twice the north’s legal alcohol limit to drive – and that this “negatively affected his reflexes and balance control, resulting in a more uncontrolled fall with potentially more severe consequences”.

Huseyin Mavideniz

“Mavideniz’s death did not happen suddenly,” he added, before going on to say that he had waited for a total of 36 minutes before an ambulance arrived, and that he had “shown signs of life for approximately 18 minutes” after falling to the ground outside the bar.

“Medical intervention during this time could have been vital … If Huseyin Mavideniz had received immediate medical attention the moment he fell, he might have had a chance to survive. His death was a slow process. This was a medically salvageable condition,” he said.

Mavideniz had been killed in August 2023 following an altercation outside the Breeze bar and entertainment venue in the Long Beach area of Trikomo.

At an earlier hearing, police officer Gurkan Kemaneci said Mavideniz had been ejected from the venue after causing “unrest” inside.

Kemaneci had also said that Mavideniz had been “knocked down by the first punch thrown” by one of the suspects, before both continued to beat him while he was on the ground, and that CCTV footage from the venue showed he two men “severely battering” Mavideniz.

Mavideniz was eventually taken by ambulance to a hospital in Famagusta, with the ambulance pursued by a gang of men who smashed windows inside the hospital’s accident and emergency unit when he arrived there.