Speculation surrounds triple murder

VARIOUS theories about the murder of 52-year-old Elmas “Guzelyurtlu” Ali, his 50-year-old wife Zerrin and 16-year-old daughter Ayul, who were shot at close range on Saturday morning, are circulating in the Turkish Cypriot press.

The nationalist paper Volkan printed quotes from Mehmet Tsiva, a business rival of Guzelyurtlu, in which he dismissed, on television, claims that the hit was carried out by the Turkish Secret Service as ‘fiction’. The paper also claimed that the assassination was perpertrated by the Cyprus Secret Services because of the clientele Guzelyurtlu has with Greek Cypriots going to his casino.

The paper Kibrisli looked into the issue of the safe, which has been sealed and will be opened by Guzelyurtlu’s surviving son, in the family home, saying that £100,000 is believed to be inside. According to the director of the paper, Doyan Harman, the discovery of money within the safe will seriously intensify the political aspect of the case.

Meanwhile, new evidence discovered at the crime scene has shed light onto ongoing investigations. Sellotape was found on the wife’s hand, indicating that she was tied up after being kidnapped from their home in Ayios Dometios.

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.