Police in south Cyprus searching for Sweden national who escaped from custody

Police in Cyprus (south) are searching for 49-year-old Sweden national Hans Jonny Uven, who fled from a private clinic in Larnaca at the weekend.

Uven had been in the clinic for two weeks being treated for gastroenteritis and chest pains when he escaped.

He was arrested at Larnaca airport on December 6 on a European warrant and was taken to a private clinic in Larnaca on December 9.

Over the two-week period, he somehow loosened the bed rail to which he was handcuffed and climbed out a window into the car park at around 4pm on Sunday December 22.

The officer guarding him, a contract hire, was immediately suspended pending a disciplinary investigation. On Monday reports said a second officer, the one who had assigned the first one to guard Uven, had also been suspended.

It appears the contract officer had originally been assigned to cases related to migrant flows and may not have had the proper training to guard a prisoner in the circumstances.

Also, it has been suggested the fact Uven had time to work on loosening the bed rail meant he had been left unsupervised for long periods of time.

According to police, Uven was arrested in connection with financial offences allegedly committed between 2021 and 2024 in Sweden.

Extradition proceedings had already begun and he was due to appear in court on Monday, police said.

Questions have also been raised as to why he was taken to a private clinic and not to the general hospital as well as whether the escape had been planned and if there were accomplices involved.

Police are appealing to anyone who may know anything that would help in locating him to contact the Larnaca police headquarters on 24-804060 or the citizen’s hotline, on 1460 or their nearest police station.

The escape comes only three months after a convicted murderer gave police the slip after he was taken to visit his family in Paphos under guard.

Doros Theophanous, 42 was serving a life sentence for the murder of his pregnant partner and her three-year-old child.

He was under a seven-team guard while visiting his family home in Choletria. In the wake of the fiasco the then police chief was fired and all involved personnel suspended.

He was caught in Limassol after three days on the run.