Arrested on the day he got out of jail

A LATVIAN man was arrested on Wednesday on the very same day he was released from prison.

Jundas Udohimovs, 22, had been serving time at the Nicosia central prison, having been convicted of committing various thefts on the island.

But his release from the prison gates, having served his time, was far from joyous, as waiting CID officers placed the handcuffs on him once again.

According to the arresting officers, Udohimovs has been wanted by the Latvian authorities since last year, in connection with a string of burglaries that were committed in his hometown of Livani.

A police source later told the Cyprus Mail that Udohimovs had no idea that he would be getting arrested again on the day of his release.

Yesterday, a Nicosia Court ordered the extradition of the suspected burglar, who was picked up by the Cypriot authorities on a European arrest warrant, issued by a Latvian district court.

Yesterday, Judge Lemonia Kaoutzani read out the charges that were pending against the suspect – who looked bored throughout the court proceedings.

According to the indictment, Udohimovs had broken into five separate apartments between June and July in 2005 stealing various items and cash totalling the equivalent of £624.

Two of the apartments targeted belong to the same apartment building and were broken into on the same day.

On June 6, 2005, Udohimovs is believed to have used a credit card, stolen from one of the apartments, and made six cash withdrawals on the same day amounting to the equivalent of £273.

On his seventh attempt to withdraw more money, the ATM machine seized the card.
Yesterday, the state prosecution requested from the judge that Udohimovs be handed back to the Latvian authorities as soon as possible and no later than within 10 working days.

Judge Kaoutzani accepted the prosecution’s request after Udohimovs made no objection to his extradition back to Latvia.

The judge ordered that the 22-year-old be kept in police custody until his extradition.

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.