TWO COUSINS extradited to Cyprus last month in connection with killing a Cypriot teenager four years ago spent more than a week in solitary confinement, their parents said.
According to the Braintree and Witham Times, Luke Atkinson’s and Michael Binnington’s solicitor said the pair had been held in solitary confinement for their own safety.
They were extradited to the island on December 1 after they were found guilty of culpable manslaughter and grievous bodily harm. The duo, both in their 20s, were backseat passengers in a car which mowed down 17-year- Christos Papiris from Nicosia’s Akaki village and his friend Marios Demetriou, who were on a moped.
Atkinson and Binnington spent eight and a half days in solitary confinement.
Luke’s mother, Averil Atkinson, said: “They went on the Tuesday and we didn’t hear from them until the following Wednesday.”
The families of both the cousins are set to pay a visit to Cyprus in the coming weeks.
“Luke has phoned twice but we get cut off,” his mother said.
“We didn’t really talk much. He’s allowed to call every six days or so but they cut him off when they feel like it. I think they are coping.”
The Braintree and Witham Times quoted Atkinson’s mother as saying it felt “like they have been there for ages”.
“It felt like they had to be extradited to tick a box,” she said.
“But I think Karen is one of the best extradition lawyers around and she has worked really hard.”
The duo was originally acquitted of manslaughter and GBH by a Larnaca Criminal Court but the Supreme Court overturned the decision to clear the two Britons.
They were sentenced in their absence in April 2008 to three years’ imprisonment for culpable manslaughter and one year for GBH, to run concurrently.
They tried to fight extradition on the grounds they were not at the appeal and did not call witnesses or have witnesses called against them.
The day after the pair arrived in Cyprus the UK government made a request for their return. Local authorities are processing the paperwork.
The men are the nephews of Essex man, Julian Harrington, was jailed in 2007 for 15 years after pleading guilty to his involvement in Papiris’ death.
Papiris was killed on the Ayia Napa – Protaras road after being flung onto a lamppost from the moped he was riding pillion after being chased and rammed three times by a rental car driven by Harrington, while Demetriou suffered serious injuries.
The court heard the attack was fuelled by revenge after a friend of the three Britons was injured in a brawl at a disco two hours earlier.
