Man remanded after confessing to murder

A 23-YEAR-OLD Russian Pontian was remanded for eight days by the Limassol court yesterday in connection with the murder of a Lebanese man, in what police believe was a crime of passion.

Lebanese Elie Kmeid, 40, was found naked and strangled under a bridge in a mountain area between Limassol and Platres on Thursday afternoon. He had disappeared without a trace on the day he arrived in Cyprus on October 1.

Days after police made a plea for information and Kmeid’s family had offered a reward, the Russian Pontian man was arrested on Thursday and confessed. He later showed police where the body was. He said he had suspected his 29-year-old wife of having an affair with the victim.

The Pontian man was tracked down when police discovered that someone had made purchases on Kmeid’s credit card.

According to reports from Limassol yesterday the suspect confessed that on October 1, he had gone home from work to find Kmeid in his living room talking with his wife at 10am. He said he then locked his wife in the bedroom and then tied Kmeid with handcuffs and bundled him into the boot of his car.

The Pontian then drove the car to Platres where the two men had a row over the woman during which he struck him on the head and then strangled him with a wire from his car. He then took the Lebanese man’s clothes to hinder his identification.

Having taken Kmeid’s credit cards, the Pontian man used them on four separate instances to withdraw some £1,200.

Police believe a second man may have been involved as further investigation into the credit card theft revealed that two stolen cards were used on 13 incidents in all towns by two people to withdraw around £1,800.

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