The trial of six people over their alleged roles in the murder of 49-year-old businessman Stavros Demosthenous was on Wednesday postponed until next month after one of the six defendants was absent from court and defence lawyers demanding more time to examine the charges their clients face.

Five of the six defendants appeared at the Limassol criminal court, while the sixth was unable to attend proceedings, having recently undergone surgery.

Defence lawyers told the court that their clients are not ready to respond to the charges, while in some instances, they asked for further details and clarifications regarding the accusations levelled at their clients.

Additionally, they said they have a “large amount” of evidence before them, which they need to evaluate.

That evidence, they said, incudes “two large-capacity computer hard drives”.

On this front, they asked the prosecution lawyers to prepare a “relevant list of what the electronic files contain” so as to “facilitate the process”, and to ensure that the remainder of the evidence is received by the defence lawyers.

The next hearing will take place on May 27.

Stavros Demosthenous was most well-known for serving as chairman of second division football club Karmiotissa FC, and was shot while riding in the passenger seat of a car being driven by his 18-year-old son.

Then police spokeswoman Kyriaki Lambrianidou had said that the shooting “took place about 500 metres from the victim’s home”, and that “initial information suggests that the victim was shot from a vehicle travelling in front of them”.

After the shooting, Demosthenous’ son immediately drove towards the hospital but crashed on the motorway. He then flagged a car down to stop and asked the driver to take them to hospital.

Demosthenous was taken to the Limassol general hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His son was not physically harmed during the incident.