Four accused of abducting and beating Iranians

FOUR Limassol men were yesterday arrested on suspicion of abducting and assaulting three Iranian men in Limassol.

According to a police announcement, the alleged attack came to light after Limassol brothers Marios and Stelios Charalambous, 33 and 27 respectively, complained to police that the three Iranians had broken into their car repair shop.

The brothers told police that they and Stelios Iliades, a 27-year-old furniture preserver from Pano Platres, and Panos Petrides, a 25-year-old private employee from Kellaki, had caught the three Iranians red-handed in the repair shop at 2am yesterday.

But police said further investigations suggested the brothers’ claims were false.

Iliades and Petrides were questioned at Limassol police headquarters and confessed that they and the Charalambous brothers had abducted the Iranians, police said.

The four of them told Ebrahim Esmeeil Ebrahim, 28, Sevet Ali Reza Moozani, 24, and Houssein Delfar, 26, that they were police officers with the Immigration department, police said.

They took them to the Charalambous brothers’ workshop and beat them up, trying to get them to reveal the whereabouts of a fourth Iranian that the brothers had “differences” with, Iliades and Petrides allegedly confessed.

The four Cypriot men were arrested on suspicion of abduction, assault and impersonating police officers. They are expected to appear before the Limassol District Court today.

But the three Iranians are not off the hook.

Police said they suspected they had been residing in Cyprus illegally.

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