A PAKISTANI man on trial for murder yesterday claimed he had been tortured by police the day before he took detectives on a tour of the scenes involved in the crime.
Zeeshan Asghar, 22, claimed he was beaten and otherwise abused for five hours by at least four officers, who had stripped him of all his clothes and tied his arms and legs.
Asghar, along with Chinese roommate Yu Hong Bo, 28, and 32-year-old Magda Eleftheriou, are facing premeditated murder and conspiracy charges in connection with the brutal killing of Magda’s husband Pavlos Christodoulou on July 17 last year.
The 38-year-old contractor was been beaten with iron bars and then burnt in the boot of his car.
Asghar’s testimony was heard yesterday in a bid by the defence to prove that its client had not shown the scenes on his own free will.
The defence said its client had been harassed and that no medical help had been afforded when he requested it.
On top of that, Asghar had not been cautioned and was never told of his right to a lawyer, defence attorney, Pavlos Angelides told the court last week when he asked for a trial within a trial to determine the circumstances under which he had shown the police the scenes.
Asghar said he was tortured both at the CID and in block 10 in the central prison where he was held.
He said the torture scared him to the point that he decided to co-operate in order to avoid further abuse.
The defendant further testified that during the tour of scenes he was continuously threatened and verbally abused by the officers present, who never warned or informed him of his right to a lawyer.
State prosecutor Rikkos Mappourides put it to the defendant that he was not tortured in the CID building or at block 10.
He said that he had asked to see CID chief Kypros Michaelides on July 22, to tell him how he was being treated.
But Michaelides was not cross-examined by the defence on this point.
Asghar said that he suffered a bloody nose at the hands of the officers in block 10.
“They asked if I felt pain; when I said yes, they gave me Panadol and then started again,” he told the court.
On Wednesday, a hospital doctor, who had examined Asghar on July 22, said he did not see any signs of abuse, apart from a couple of marks on the wrists caused by the handcuffs.
He was also x-rayed but again there was nothing irregular, the doctor said.
His allegations prompted Mappourides to ask the court for permission to summon additional witnesses who could testify on the matter.
The court reserved its decision for the trial within a trial for Monday morning.
