Settlers held after ex-diplomat’s wife raped

TWO TURKISH settlers have been arrested in the north for the alleged gang rape of a former British diplomat’s wife on Sunday.The French news agency AFP reported yesterday that Ozgul Sertbirinci, 23, and Feysullah Culfuk, 20, were arrested on Monday after a manhunt. They have allegedly confessed to the rape.The two men are accused of forcibly entering the home of the unnamed former diplomat and sodomising his wife several times after tying the couple up.They later set the house on fire and cut all the telephone lines before fleeing.The couple were only saved from death by their neighbours, who alerted the fire brigade.Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash yesterday expressed regret over the incident. “This is a savage crime. The suspects should be tried as soon as possible for us to clean up this stain,” he said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.