Murder suspects ‘have confessed’

THE SUSPECTS in the murder of a 58-year-old Turkish Cypriot businessman from Pergamos have reportedly confessed to the crime.

Ahmed Mesut Mendesie had gone missing on February 22. Last Sunday, police, acting on a tip-off, discovered the corpse of Mendesie in a valley on the left side of the Vouno main road.

The body was totally burnt and it was not possible to make a proper identification. A DNA test was to be subsequently conducted for the identification of the corpse.

According to sources, 58-year-old Mendesie was connected to the family of Turkish Cypriot Elmas Guzelyurtlu, who was murdered along with his wife and daughter in January 2005. He was also allegedly involved in illegally transferring money to and from the north.

SBA Dhekelia police spokesman Andreas Pitsillides said yesterday that two of the three suspects, all Turkish settlers, had confessed to Mendesie’s killing.

The two have apparently told detectives that they drove Mendesie to a remote location somewhere between Kyrenia and Nicosia, where they strangled the victim with a rope.

The three suspects were remanded in custody for eight days. They had been arrested immediately following Mendesie’s disappearance, released and then re-arrested when the corpse was found.

According to the same reports, they have been identified as Osman Bayir,30, Ferhat Dursun,20, and Yusuf Teker, 31, all residents of Kalopsida village.

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.