Man jailed for murder after sham marriage row

A 26-year-old defendant from India was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday after he was found guilty of the murder of a 33-year-old Romanian, Andrei Popa.

Popa, 33, who had been missing from July 22 until late August, was found buried in a field behind a petrol station on Artemidos Avenue in Larnaca.

The row and subsequent murder was linked to the fallout of a sham marriage, further complicated by an attempt to scam the 26-year-old.

The 26-year-old had reportedly married a Romanian woman in 2018 who was also Popa’s partner.

Popa and the woman had left Cyprus after the wedding, but authorities in Cyprus had asked the Indian man to present certain documents together with his ‘wife’.

The 26-year-old asked the woman to come to Cyprus, but she demanded €2,000 to do so.

The 26-year-old paid the money and the woman travelled to Cyprus along with Popa. The victim and the suspect went to Nicosia to collect the documents from the embassy, but on the way back they argued because Popa asked for more money.

The Indian man told police that at some point near Oroklini he stopped the car and assaulted the 33-year-old.

He then dumped him there and went to the flat where the woman was staying, telling her Popa would be returning later.

Later in the evening, the 26-year-old went back to the location where he had abandoned Popa and found out he had died.

 

 

 

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.