New details have emerged regarding the fatal stabbing of 26-year-old Alexandros Antoniou in Konia on 19 November, as the Paphos District Court renewed the eight-day detention order for the 58-year-old suspect.
The police representative outlined a series of shocking details to the court about the events outside the kiosk on Konia’s main road on the night of the tragedy. This information follows the significant development of the suspect’s admission of involvement in the murder, his claim that the act was unplanned and a “bad moment,” and the regret he reportedly expressed during questioning over the tragic outcome.
Evidence from the kiosk’s external closed-circuit television (CCTV) system was presented to the court:
At 6:16 p.m. the victim is seen parking his vehicle outside the kiosk’s main facade, remaining in the driver’s seat and talking on his mobile phone. Four minutes later, a man is seen approaching the vehicle, violently opening the driver’s door, and grabbing the victim by his right shoulder. The victim attempted to resist, and the man is seen striking him on the neck with an object held in his hand.
The police representative stated that the footage then shows the perpetrator going to the back of the kiosk and washing his hands in an outdoor sink. At the same time, the injured victim exited the vehicle, entered the kiosk entrance, and collapsed on the ground. The footage shows the attacker, after washing his hands, entering the kiosk through the back door, seeing the bloodied victim, and then leaving the scene on foot.
The police representative further announced that the kiosk employee, when called to the police station, identified the 58-year-old suspect as the person seen committing these acts in the footage.
Additionally, the police told the court they possess two further written testimonies:
A witness who was at the scene saw the alleged perpetrator tell the victim that he had warned him not to harass his daughter, and the 26-year-old responded that he was not harassing her. The witness also stated that they heard the alleged perpetrator urge the young man to go to the hospital quickly because, in the witness’s words, he was losing a lot of blood.
The person the victim was speaking to on his mobile phone at the time of the incident testified that during their conversation, they heard a man’s voice threatening the 26-year-old that if he touched his daughter again, he would kill him.
The investigator of the case stated that the following steps remain incomplete: taking 50 more depositions, revealing telecommunications data, checking vehicles, and further checking the closed-circuit surveillance systems in the area.
The defence lawyers for the 58-year-old, Maria Papadimitri and Takis Simmilides, appearing on behalf of lawyer Elias Stephanou, did not object to the renewal of their client’s temporary detention order. The representative of the Prosecuting Authority described the police request for an eight-day detention renewal as justified.
The Paphos District Court, in announcing the renewal of the order, stressed that there is reasonable testimony for premeditated murder with the 58-year-old as the alleged perpetrator and that investigative work remains to be completed.