Murder suspects escapes from court, caught shortly after

Cameroon nationals who were held in detention for the killing of a Turkish Cypriot woman in December, 2023 tried to escape from the court on Thursday morning but were caught in a short while.

The suspects, B.G.K., 32 and V.S.M.T., 32, both Cameroonians were brought to court on Thursday, October 24, 2024 for hearing when they escaped from their handcuff while being paraded in court and were caught in a short time.

The story so far...

The body of the deceased Ayça Alav, 45 one of the owners of Alav Döviz was discovered at her place of work named HİT BİT, located on Vakıflar Street in the Lefkosia city center. 

The murder incident that happened on December, 22, 2023, caused a serious outrage in the country, leading to the arrest of two people, F.L.D, 31, a Cameroonian and S.H, 31, a Pakistan national, accused of helping the suspects escape to south Cyprus on the same day.

Police said Ayça Alav's hand were tied from behind with an antenna cable, duct tape wrapped around her, and her mouth stuffed with towel and covered with duct tape, resulting in her death.

Police said evidence from examined camera footage to identify the murder suspects showed that S.H came to pick up the suspects in his vehicle and took them to F.L.D's house, from there they took them to the area near the border and helped them escape to Southern Cyprus. 

Police stated that while the suspects were running away, they threw Alav's mobile phone into an empty box in the parking lot of a market on the road.

The suspects, B.G.K., 32 and V.S.M.T., 32, were later caught and arrested in Pyla 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 appeared in court on several occasion.

During investigation, police said both suspects gave voluntary statements containing confessions.

Narrating the facts in court, police prosecutor said the suspects, B.G.C and V.S.M went to the office of the deceased in Lefkosia city center between 2:00pm to 2:47pm on December 22, 2023 where they deliberately killed her, stole local and foreign currencies, left the scene and went to South Cyprus illegally. 

The suspects who spoke in court claimed that "Ayça Alav was alive when they left the workplace, they did not kill her, they did not do it on purpose." The woman was alive when we left there. We didn't kill her, we didn't leave her like that to kill her but after we escaped, she died. We did not do anything willingly, they said.