Hit-and-run suspect appears in court

A MAN of 28, suspected of causing the death of 17-year-old pupil Georgios Mavrikios, yesterday appeared before a Nicosia traffic court.

Tseri resident Savvas Savva was yesterday taken before a Nicosia District Court where he told Judge Alexia Lycourgou that he understood the three charges against him.

The judge told Savva that he will be called to answer to the charges on April 3.

Savva was officially charged by police on Friday and was released on £1,000 bail.

Mavrikios had been standing next to a car stopped off Strovolos Avenue in Tseri at around 3.20am on New Years Day with his girlfriend, Agathi Trifonos, also 17, when somebody careened into them and drove off.

Mavrikios is the son of CyBC General Manager Marios Mavrikios.

Police arrested Savva later that morning, following statements from Trifonos, who was injured in the crash, and several of Mavrikios’ friends who were at the scene of the accident.

Police believe that Savva was the drunk when Mavrikios was struck and killed.

Savva is facing charges of causing a death through reckless driving, fleeing a crash scene without giving help and driving under the influence of alcohol.

Yesterday, Savva was accompanied in the court by members of his family.

Teachers and classmates of Mavrikios yesterday paid tribute to the student at the Ethnomartira Kyprianou Lyceum in Strovolos, where the victim’s parents were also present.

The school conducted a minute’s silence for the victim, while the headmaster of the school, Themistoclis Agathocleous, announced after a meeting of the teacher and student faculty that a music award would be named after him, seeing as music was his favourite lesson. Pictures of the victim will also be placed at the school.

In a short speech, the victim’s father called on classmates and friends of his son to exercise every caution and to always remember his son who always loved them.

His parents then went to their son’s empty desk where teachers and classmates had placed flowers, pictures and letters from his friends.
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