Second murder suspect caught by UNFICYP

POLICE yesterday had in custody the alleged accomplice in the murder of a 20-year-old Russian woman in Nicosia last month.
According to media reports, the suspect was apprehended by UNFICYP officers who then handed him over to Cypriot police.

The man, who has only been identified as a Greek national, had tried to slip back into the south from the occupied territories, but was stopped at a Nicosia checkpoint.
Today, he will appear before a magistrate to plead against charges of murder, conspiracy, burglary and theft.

The other suspect, 28-year-old Greek national Pavlos Tsivitsov has already admitted to killing Kristina Polyntsova.

On April 16, two men who broke into Polynstova’s apartment on Kennedy Avenue in Nicosia by breaking in through the side aluminium door of their flat.
They had previously entered the balcony of the apartment after climbing up a ladder.

Police said Polyntsova and her flatmate Olga Malinina tried to resist by screaming for help but the two assailants managed to silence the victims by taping their mouths and noses.
As a result, Polyntsova died of asphyxiation while Malinina was rushed to Nicosia General Hospital for treatment. The two assailants then left the apartment taking with them money as well as other personal items belonging to the victims.
Both suspects, reportedly heroin addicts, had been living in Limassol.

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.