The second defendant in the Limassol double murder trial changed his plea mid-hearing on Tuesday, admitting both counts of premeditated murder and offering to testify against his co-accused, in a development that has upended proceedings at the Limassol Permanent Criminal Court.
The two victims, Andreas Kouzoupis and 38-year-old Slovak national David Chmelar, were killed on July 30, 2024, and found burnt on a dirt road in the Listovounos area of Limassol district.
The second defendant, who had until now maintained he was merely a bystander to the killings, reversed his position after ten prosecution witnesses had already testified and significant evidence had been heard.
His lawyer told the court her client was offering to testify as a prosecution witness against the first defendant.
The Criminal Court granted permission for the change of plea. Senior Counsel of the Republic Andreas Aristeidis, representing the prosecution, re-charged the second defendant on both counts of premeditated murder, which he admitted.
Aristeidis then asked the court for time to consider whether to call the second defendant as a prosecution witness. If the prosecution proceeds on that basis, the second defendant will be sentenced before the trial of the first defendant continues.
If the prosecution does not use his testimony, the case against the first defendant will be heard first and the second defendant sentenced at the conclusion of the entire proceedings.
According to Supreme Court case law, the correct practice is to sentence a co-accused before the conclusion of proceedings against the other only when that co-accused is to be called as a prosecution witness.
The case has been adjourned to June 29, 2026, for the court to decide how proceedings will continue in light of the new development. Relatives of the defendants, speaking outside the courtroom after the hearing, expressed strong displeasure at the turn of events.
What the second defendant previously claimed
On March 19, CID Limassol Sergeant Nikola Papanikolaou, called as a prosecution witness, read into the record the second defendant’s statement, in which he claimed the first defendant had messaged him to go hunting, and that he was present only as a spectator.
According to the statement, as they drove towards Parekklisia, the first defendant — referred to in the statement as Petros — spoke on the phone and said they were going fishing, that there would be one extra person with them, and that they would first hunt rabbit with his father’s shotgun.
When they arrived, Petros set up the shotgun and loaded it with cartridges, the statement said, and told the second defendant to shine a light on the ground and up into the trees. Petros then received a phone call and told the caller: “We’re here and waiting for you.”
After around 20 minutes, a car arrived carrying two people. According to the statement: “They stopped, two people got out and Petros, without saying anything, fired. I turned my head and saw the passenger fall to the ground. Immediately, Petros fired at the driver too and he fell against the car. I shouted ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ and Petros told me to shut up and said ‘they’ll catch us’.”
The statement continued: “I sat in Petros’s car in the passenger seat because I was very scared and trembling. From where I was sitting I could see the back of their car, and I saw Petros grab the passenger and put him in the back seat. He put the driver inside the car through the driver’s door and pushed him into the passenger seat. I understood that both of them were dead. Petros then released the handbrake, pushed the car with his foot and it rolled downhill. Then he got into the car and told me ‘they’ve gone into the ravine.’ I said to him ‘it’s not right what you did to them, you pushed them into the ravine.’ He said ‘mind your business’.”