A SYRIAN man suspected of murdering a Ukrainian cabaret artiste has confessed to strangling her, a court heard yesterday.
The 45-year-old suspect was arrested earlier this month after he went to the Nicosia hospital for treatment for lacerations to his arm and throat.
There, unconvinced by the man’s explanations about his injuries, a suspicious doctor called police.
Police questioned the man and found he was a permanent resident of Cyprus, living in a flat in the suburb of Palouriotissa with another Syrian man.
The 45-year-old baker was married to a Cypriot woman and has two children.
They have since divorced.
Police escorted the man to his flat on Democritos Street, where they found 22-year-old Ilona Li dead on the bathroom floor.
The suspect denied killing the woman, but yesterday police told the court he had since confessed to the murder.
In a testimony given two days after the murder, the suspect described his alleged crime in detail, police said.
The suspect allegedly told police that there had been an argument with Li, during which he strangled her to death.
Evidence found at the scene, along with the marks on his arms and throat, indicated the victim had put up a fight before dying, the court heard.
The court renewed the suspect’s remand for seven days.
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.
