Police have arrested a fourth 18-year-old in connection with the assault of a 47-year-old Turkish Cypriot man in Ayia Napa.
The suspect was arrested at Larnaca airport shortly before 2pm, police said. He remains in custody and is expected to appear before Famagusta District Court in Paralimni on Monday for a remand order.
Earlier, Famagusta CID officers arrested three other 18-year-old tourists following an assessment of information and CCTV footage.
The three, who are of Albanian, Chilean and Iraqi origin and hold Swedish passports, had been due to leave Cyprus on Sunday afternoon. The court remanded them in custody for eight days.
According to police sources, the 47-year-old had been in the area with a friend at around 5am on Sunday. After the two separated, the injured man allegedly began arguing with the tourists for reasons under investigation.
The tourists allegedly assaulted him, causing him to fall and hit his head on the ground. Police inquiries so far indicate that the victim did not know those arrested.
Police found the man injured on Agias Mavris Street at around 6am on Sunday after receiving information about the incident.
He was taken to Famagusta General Hospital, where doctors found he had suffered a brain haemorrhage and a fracture at the base of his skull.
He was intubated and transferred to Nicosia General Hospital, where he remains in a serious but stable condition.
Police said they had obtained testimony suggesting that the 47-year-old had been attacked by a group of unknown people.
The incident has received extensive coverage in the Turkish Cypriot press. Tufan Erhurman called for a full investigation, saying the relevant authorities and the victim’s family had been in contact following the incident.
Unal Ustel said that, if the attack was found to have been motivated by ethnic hatred or hostility towards Turkish Cypriot identity, it should be treated as a serious hate crime rather than an ordinary individual offence.
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