Supreme court overturns not guilty verdict in murder case

The supreme court on Thursday reversed the prior acquittal of Evripides Christou, who had been found not guilty of the murder of his wife Aliki Christoforou at their home in Kritou Terra, Paphos, in July 2014.

The judges did not order a retrial, directly convicting Christou of the murder charge.

His lawyer will plea for leniency on October 20.

In late December 2014, the Paphos criminal court had acquitted Christou, then aged 84, of the murder of his wife, ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Aliki Christoforou, then 78, died of internal bleeding after being struck on the forehead with a blunt object.

The attorney-general’s office subsequently appealed the decision with the Supreme Court.

In its ruling, the top court said the evidence brought by the attorney-general’s office ‘obliterates the possibility of an error and leads to a guilty verdict beyond any reasonable doubt’.

It said the absence of the defendant’s DNA on his cane – the suspected murder weapon – did not rule out the possibility that the defendant had indeed used the cane or that the cane was in fact the murder weapon.

According to the decision, on the night of July 22, 2014, Christou and his wife were having an argument, and at one point he struck her on the head with his cane.

After the incident, the elderly woman went to sleep, but she later died due to internal bleeding caused by the blow.

Forensic pathologists determined that the metal casing at one end of the cane matched the imprint left on the victim’s forehead.

The initial criminal trial heard that the couple would argue frequently over money, and that shortly before her death the woman had considered filing for divorce.