THE trial of a Romanian man accused of stabbing his compatriot to death began at the Assize court sitting in Larnaca yesterday, with police investigators submitting evidence.
Nineteen-year-old Ionut Vraniceanu was charged with the premeditated murder of Marius Isac, 30, at a cow farm in November last year.
The suspect maintains the stabbing took place in self-defence during a quarrel over what to watch on television.
The two men, both farm workers in the village of Athienou, southeast of Nicosia, had been on a drinking spree on Saturday night.
At around 1am on Sunday, the two men, who by that time had consumed large quantities of alcohol, returned to the suspect’s room at the farm and resumed drinking.
According to Vraniceanu, they argued over what to watch on television, and Isac grabbed a large kitchen knife and threatened him.
Vraniceanu managed to wrest the knife off Isac and stabbed him six times in the throat and chest.
He then locked the room and fled on his motorcycle, heading for Larnaca.
On the way, he ran out of petrol and was forced to spend the night in the fields.
At around 12pm he surrendered to police and allegedly admitted to stabbing his friend.
Police said they found bloodstains on the suspect’s clothes and shoes.
The owner of the farm, Michalis Karakitis, had found the victim’s body earlier that day.
Yesterday, the police investigator testified in court that he had gone to the farm at around 6.30am and gone into the suspect’s room.
He found the victim dead, lying in a blood-soaked bed while the floor was littered with broken glass and bloodstains, the court heard.
Inside the small kitchenette, police found a jacket hung on a chair along with clothes.
The jacket was identified by Isac’s employer, Kyriacos Theodorou as belonging to the dead man.
Vraniceanu arrived on the island on June 15 and had since worked at Karakitis’ farm.
Isac came to Cyprus one month before he was killed – on October 10 – and worked at a neighbouring poultry farm.
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.
