The trial of the man suspected of having stabbed 26-year-old Alexandros Antoniou to death in the Paphos district village of Konia in November will continue March, following a decision of the Paphos criminal court on Thursday.

The new hearing has been scheduled for March 30 at 9.30am, with the defence requesting additional time to study the case file due to the outstanding delivery of witness material by the prosecution.

Prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou did not object, citing that the delivery of the witness material would take four to five weeks.

Nonetheless, underscoring the severity of the crime and the risk of the suspect not appearing at his next hearing, Hadjikyrou insisted that the 58-year-old suspect be kept in custody until the subsequent hearing.

The man has remained in custody at the central prison in Nicosia since his most recent court hearing in November.

The incident occurred on November 19 last year, with it having been reported that the two men initially started arguing outside the kiosk in Konia, before the suspect drew a blade and stabbed the victim multiple times before fleeing the scene.

The victim was then taken to the Paphos general hospital, where he remained until his death almost three days later.

The suspect was arrested on the day of the murder and then re-arrested after the victim had died.

On his arrest, the 58-year-old told the police that he had been emotionally charged during the incident, as Antoniou had previously been in a relationship with the suspect’s daughter during which problems arose.

Prosecution lawyer Sotiroula Papalazarou said that the police also have testimony that the suspect and the victim were at one point engaged in an argument, and that the victim asked “what do you want? What did I do?”, and the suspect responded, “did you hear what I told you? Leave her alone”.

Defence lawyer Elias Stefanou had in an earlier hearing argued that the suspect’s intention was “not to strike a vital part of the 26-year-old’s body”.