‘Killer’ still at large

By George Psyllides

A YUGOSLAV murder suspect is still at large despite police efforts to bring him to justice, the Limassol police director said yesterday.

Charalambos Koulendis told the Cyprus Mailthat based on police information police, 24-year-old Dragan Prvulovic, alias ‘Killer’, was still on the island.

” We are carrying out daily searches at houses and flats but there is no sign of him yet,”Koulendis said.

Authorities only managed to identify the suspect 24 hours after the murder of Nicos Panayiotou, 24, in a Limassol club over 20 days ago.

Despite this, Koulendis felt confident the fugitive had not escaped abroad.

” There is no way he left the island through Larnaca airport legally, “Koulendis said.

He added: ” We don’t know whether he had any forged passports but all indications show that he is still in Cyprus.”

The authorities have nevertheless asked UNFICYP for assistance, worried that the Yugoslav could try to flee to the occupied north.

The UN have been supplied with information on Prvulovic to prevent him from crossing the buffer zone should he try.

But so far, the UN have not heard from Turkish Cypriot authorities of anyone arrested crossing from the free areas, reinforcing the police’s belief that the suspect is still hiding in a safe house somewhere in Limassol.

Prvulovic, considered by police as armed and extremely dangerous, is accused of shooting Panayiotou after a fight in the Privé club.

He then escaped through the club’s kitchen without being seen.

Reports said police tracked him down three days after the murder, but later lost him again.

His girlfriend, Anna Kostic, is also missing and is thought to be hiding along with Prvulovic.

Koulendis said Interpol had already been notified and the suspect’s arrest was being treated as a high priority by the international force.

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.