Two Cameroonians accused of murder of Turkish Cypriot woman begs for forgiveness, sent to prison for 3 months until trial

The two men accused of murdering a Turkish Cypriot woman in north Cyprus in December, 2023, were on Wednesday sent to prison for a period of three months pending their trial. 

The incident happened on December, 22, 2023, when the body of Ayça Alav, 45 was discovered at her place of work named HİT BİT, located on Vakıflar Street in the Lefkosia city center. The suspects crossed to south Cyprus on the same day.

The suspects named only as B.G.K., 32 and V.S.M.T., 32, both Cameroon nationals were caught and arrested in Pile (this fact is still being disputed by Greek Cypriot authorities and the media) on January, 8, 2024, 17 days after the incident.

They were taken to the Lefkosia District Court on January, 9, on charges of premeditated murder and were detained for 3 days. They were taken to court again on January, 12 and another 7 days detention period was issued against them for the purpose of investigation. 

They were brought to court for the third time on Wednesday, January, 17.

In court, police explained that at 2:47pm on December 22, the two suspects who are both university students, one of whom worked at Alav’s Hit Bit shop entered the shop, tie her arms and legs with a seat belt before placing duct tape across her mouth. An autopsy revealed Alav’s cause of death to be suffocation and neck injuries.

The suspects then made their way to the bureau de change Alav owned, which is located near the Kyrenia gate, from where they stole an “undetermined amount” of cash. It was stated that security camera footage showed that no one else had entered the building after Mrs. Alav entered her shop.

Police also told the court that as part of investigation, it was revealed that the suspects stole $36,000, 10,000 Euros, 8,000 Pounds and 138,000TL and 2,300 Euros was found on them. When asked about the stolen money, the police said they said they sent it to their country. 

Speaking in court on Wednesday, the suspects who did not however deny the crime they committed said, “we did not want to do this, we are very sorry. What we did was a very bad thing. We are sorry, please forgive us.”

Shortly afterwards, the other suspect also expressed remorse saying “we are sorry, we did not want to kill the woman, we never had such intentions. We are very sorry. We committed a crime and there will be a consequences for it.”

The suspects who requested for bail were however denied their request as the judge decided that they should be remanded in custody for a maximum period of three months before to trial.

It could be recalled that, following their arrest, Greek Cypriot police announced that they had arrested three men, aged 37, 46, and 47, regarding “a case of abduction with the purpose of secret and unjust imprisonment”.

The three were arrested on suspicion that they abducted “the two victims [who] … appear to be the same people who are suspected of having committed a murder in north Cyprus in December.”

It is believed that the three arrested are the same people who brought the two murder suspects to the north after they escaped to south Cyprus.