FOUR SRI Lankans are to spend at least four days behind bars while police look into whether boxes they found were loading onto a trailer were stolen.
Yesterday, a Nicosia Court remanded the three men and one woman in police custody on suspicion of being in illegal possession of goods.
According to investigators, police have received no complaints with regards to the items or, indeed, if they are even stolen.
The four suspects, three men and a woman, were arrested on Sunday afternoon in the Nicosia village of Kokkinotrimithia after police received a phone call informing them that four suspicious-looking people were loading a trailer with crates and boxes.
Yesterday, a Nicosia Court remanded suspects Pushpa Kumaiza Wickramarathma Randemi Arachchilage, 29, Lakshman Narahenpitage, 38, Nandamalanie Lakmalage, 33, and Upali Juarathna, 32, in police custody for four days.
“Police were summoned to the scene, next door to a factory, were they loading the trailer”, said the case investigator.
“When asked who the boxes belonged to, all four suspects said that they belonged to fellow compatriots who had since left the island. According to the Arachchilage, the people who had left the boxes had paid him to send them to Sri Lanka for a fee.
The investigator added, “The suspects were not in a position to give details as to the original owners of the crates and boxes.”
Police have seized the 150 boxes, containing items such as furniture and electronic equipment, and have already issued a search warrant to go through them. It also emerged that Arachchilage and Juarathna were the ones organising the collection of the boxes and that Narahenpitage and Lakmalage would simply help them load the boxes as well as store them at the house that they were renting in the village.
The suspects’ defence lawyer yesterday informed the court that the police had absolutely no indication showing that the goods were stolen or that the possession of the items was illegal.
However, Judge Angelos David said that there was reasonable suspicion linking the suspects to a possible offence but did not agree with the police’s request for a remand of eight days.
“It goes without saying that should the investigations finish sooner, then the suspects must be released immediately,” added the judge.
