MYSTERY SURROUNDED the death of a 40-year-old man from Larnaca who was found hanging from his police cell in Limassol yesterday, the same day he was due to be released from custody.
The 40-year-old was arrested at around 1.30am last Saturday along with a 35-year-old man in connection with a burglary at Karmiotissas Church in Polemidia. Acting on a tip-off, Limassol police watched as the two men allegedly broke into the church.
According to a police spokesman, when arrested on the spot by police, the 40-year-old had first tried to escape and then hit the arresting officer.
The Limassol district court remanded both men in custody for three days. The 40-year-old father of two was taken to Yermasoyia police station where he was due to be kept in custody until his release yesterday.
However, at around 1pm, while his wife waited outside the station to pick him up, police found the 40-year-old hanging from the bathroom door of his cell.
According to Limassol police head Andreas Koushoumis: “As another inmate was being taken into the cell, the 40-year-old was found hanging at the entrance to the bathroom.”
He added: “It appears the inmate used the cord found wrapped around his mattress which he tied to the protective grill at the entrance to the bathroom.”
Koushoumis said two other inmates were in the common area which straddles the 40-year-old’s cell and another cell at the time though neither inmate noticed anything.
The 40-year-old shared the cell with one more person who was taken earlier yesterday morning to Limassol district court.
Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou yesterday ordered an investigation into the death of the father of two children while in police custody.
According to a police source, police last checked on the 40-year-old around half an hour earlier, at around 12.30pm. The man was said to be estranged from his wife who lives in Limassol with their children.
This is the second known death of an inmate in police custody in the last three years. On March 15, 2009, a 24-year-old man from Moldova died while in police custody. The Moldovan was arrested in the early hours of that morning after driving a suspected stolen truck while under the influence of alcohol into the perimeter fence of the Education Ministry.
Less than two hours after his arrest, the 24-year-old was found dead in his cell at Lykavitos police station in Nicosia, hanging from his cell door.
According to state pathologist, Nicholas Charalambous, who turned up at the station following the death, the man had used a thin string from his tracksuit to hang himself from the iron bars of his cell door. Charalambous ruled out foul play.
