Car torched after pet dog killed

A MAN from Dhali village in Nicosia is in police custody on suspicion of setting fire to his landlord’s car.

According to police investigators, the 26-year-old set his landlord’s Mercedes alight after somebody had poisoned his dog. The suspect and his landlord had argued in the past over the dog, which he kept in the apartment he was renting.

He is currently under investigation for arson.

“On October 29 at around 11pm, a Mercedes was found burning in the village of Dhali. The car is estimated to be worth around £1,000,” said the investigator during the remand hearing of the suspect yesterday.

“The car was parked outside the home of the plaintiff. After investigations from local police at Pera Chorio police station and by the fire services, it was established that the car was torched with the use of an inflammable fluid. According to the plaintiff, his suspicions immediately pointed towards the suspect who was renting an apartment from him and with whom he had recently argued because of the dog that he kept in the apartment.”

The suspect’s dog had recently been poisoned.

The investigator went on to say that local police had witnesses who had spotted the suspect’s car close to his landlord’s house just a couple of hours before the attack.

“A second man was also seen and efforts are currently under way to find him,” he added.

Upon his arrest at his apartment in the early hours of yesterday morning, the 26-year-old told police that he had nothing to do with the arson attack on his landlord’s car.

He added that at the time of the attack, he was a local cafeteria in his village and that many customers there could verify that fact.

Nothing incriminating was found at his apartment after a search warrant was issued to search his premises.

The investigator yesterday said that three statements had been taken so far in connection with the incident and that another 20 were set to be made.

Judge Alexia Lycourgou yesterday remanded the 26-year-old in police custody for three days after no objections were made from his defence lawyer.

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