Five suspects were remanded in custody for eight days on Wednesday over an armed robbery at a couple’s home in Sfalangiotissa, Limassol, in which intruders tied up the husband and stole cash and gold jewellery worth 100,000 euros. Limassol CID told the court it had gathered significant evidence in the case.
The suspects, aged 25, 24, 27, 20 and 29, are all of Syrian origin. Police are still searching for two wanted people, for another person whose identity they are trying to establish, and for the stolen property.
According to evidence presented in court, CCTV footage shows the intruders entered the house in the early hours of October 8 and stayed inside for 39 minutes. After tying up the husband with adhesive tape and plastic cable ties and threatening him with knives and a pistol, they told his 36-year-old wife to open the safe and took the cash and jewellery. They were then filmed leaving through a balcony door and escaping over the perimeter fence.
The suspects had also been inside the house earlier. They were recorded at around 1am leaving through the balcony door and jumping over the fence. The couple did not notice them or wake up during that first entry, the court heard.
Suspect’s statement
The statement of the second suspect, a 24-year-old, is considered crucial. Although he denied taking part in the robbery, he allegedly told investigators that the first suspect, a 25-year-old, had told him he took part in the break-in with others and that they shared out the stolen goods.
The 24-year-old said that before the robbery he had been at a house where the 27-year-old, the 20-year-old and the 29-year-old lived with the two wanted people. According to his account, the 25-year-old later told him that the third and fifth suspects had gone to the couple’s house with the two wanted people and another person whom the authorities are trying to identify. The 29-year-old had allegedly fitted a door at the couple’s home in the past.
CCTV and vehicles
CCTV footage showed a red Mazda repeatedly driving near the house, and footage from a petrol station shows one of the wanted people in its passenger seat, the court heard. A few minutes before the robbery, the same car was filmed stopping outside a kiosk in Mesa Geitonia, where one of the wanted people bought adhesive tape. According to the evidence in the case, the tape was used to tie up the couple.
Police placed the Mazda under discreet surveillance and stopped it on Tuesday afternoon, with the first and second suspects inside. A search of a house in Limassol that followed found the other three suspects, along with clothing and tools that police are examining for links to the robbery.
In a BMW searched with the consent of the 27-year-old, police found a box cutter that allegedly resembles one seen in the footage from the house.
Ongoing inquiries
Investigators are still searching for the stolen cash and jewellery and for the firearm the robbers allegedly used. Analysis of telecommunications data, identification parades and visits to the scene with suspects are planned. Police are also trying to identify the person to whom the stolen property was allegedly handed over, and will consider seeking an arrest warrant once they have done so.
