Remand extension for suspected murderer

A MURDER suspect believed by police to have killed his wife and her lover has been remanded for another eight days after investigators last week discovered the body of a woman believed to be his wife.

On August 1, Christoforos Charalambous, 29, is believed to have stabbed 45-year-old Yiannos Demosthenous 38 times in the back with a kitchen knife.

Police believe Demosthenous was killed because he was having an affair with the suspect’s wife, 30-year-old Anna Vasileva from Kyrgyzstan.

Officers believe that Charalambous snapped when he found out that his wife planned to leave him to go and live with Demosthenous.

Initially Charalambous claimed his wife had escaped to the north, but last week he reportedly broke down under questioning, telling police he would lead them to the spot where the woman’s body was.

Escorted by the suspect, officers found skeletal remains inside a metal barrel in an out-of-the-way area outside the village of Askas.

But in a bizarre twist, Charalambous denies killing his estranged wife, saying she had asked to be cremated.

The State Prosecutor yesterday informed Judge Angelos David that the police were waiting for DNA results to confirm that the charred human remains were those of Vasileva.

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.