THIRTY-two-year-old Panayiotis Netzadi was yesterday found guilty of the kidnapping, rape and murder of 20-year-old Janka Kovacova last year.
He will be sentenced tomorrow. By law, a murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.
The Turkish Cypriot is believed to have taken the news badly and is likely to appeal, his lawyers said.
Netzadi’s family was also disappointed with the court’s decision.
His sister-in-law told the Cyprus Mail: “It’s very unfair how things have turned out. I don’t want to make a comment. Only God will judge from now on. They’ve condemned an innocent man to life.”
Although during custody last year Netzadi confessed to the young Slovak’s abduction, rape and murder, leading police to where he had disposed of her body, he later retracted his confession. Nevertheless, it was accepted as evidence during the trial, as was a later confession to a psychologist.
Both confessions had been crucial in determining premeditated murder.
The court’s verdict was based on the fact that Netzadi had had a motive and that displaying great calm he had then tried to cover his tracks.
State prosecutor Elias Stefanou said that during Netzadi’s confession to a psychologist in September last year, the 32-year-old had claimed to be having a relationship with the victim. When Janka found out he was married and had tried to break up with him, he said he had killed her so as not to lose her the way he had lost other girls.
“This indicated premeditation,” Stefanou said.
The state prosecutor said in its decision the court had also taken into account the fact that the Turkish Cypriot had lied about how he had obtained the rope he’d used to bind Janka’s hands and feet before burying her in a shallow grave.
“He claimed to get it from his workplace,” he told the Mail.
Netzadi also said the belt he’d used to strangle her with had already been in his vehicle, Stefanou said.
“No one remembers the belt in his car, and a representative from the car manufacturer said it did not come with the car. As for the rope, the company he worked for said it did not have such a rope, nor had it put such a rope in the van he was driving,” Stefanou said.
The prosecutor said the court also failed to believe Netzadi’s claim that he’d mistaken Janka for dead when he’d strangled her, not realising she was simply unconsciousness.
The autopsy of Janka’s remains said cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation, more than likely caused by the belt found around her throat.
“The court ruled that he would have been in a position to determine that she had fainted and so was still alive,” Stefanou said.
Another fact the court took into account was that Netzadi spent a great deal of time digging the grave in which he’d placed her body before strangling her. Again this indicated premeditation, Stefanou said.
Janka was killed on August 17, 2006 after she was abducted during the early hours from outside the Grecian Bay hotel in Ayia Napa. She had been employed at the hotel as a waitress for the summer. Her body was found buried nearly three weeks later on the side of the old Limassol-Nicosia road near the Dhali industrial area in a state of advanced decomposition. She was fully clothed, her hands and feet bound with rope, and a black plastic bin bag was over her head.
Netzadi was arrested after an eyewitness placed his van at the scene. According to the witness, a young woman was shoved into a man’s vehicle as she begged him to let her go. Minutes before disappearing, Janka had called a male colleague sounding frightened and asking him to come quickly because she said a man in a white car was following her. She was never heard from again.
No one from Janka’s family was yesterday available for comment.
