The two suspects Bryan Gibip Camerounaise and Vinel Sidrick Mbouhomtchomite are accused of Mrs Alav’s murder on December 22, last year. They were both arrested after fleeing to the south.
They appeared at court requesting bail, however, the judge decided that they should be remanded in custody for a period of no more than three months.
Giving evidence in court, a police officer stated that on December 22, 2023 at 14:47, Bryan Gibip Camerounaise and his friend Vinel Sidrick Mbouhomtchomite, who worked at Mrs Alav’s luggage shop Hit Bit on Vakıflar Street in Nicosia, were reported to have committed the crime of “premeditated murder” by tying Mrs Alav’s hands and feet with seat belt and plastic ties, and gagging her mouth with duct tape. The police told the court that the suspects also committed robbery by stealing money from the currency exchange office, also owned by Mrs Alav.
It was stated that security camera footage showed that no one else had entered the building after Mrs. Alav entered her shop.
The police officer said that on 8 January, the two men were arrested in Pile, 17 days after they fled south.
A postmortem report stated that the cause of Mrs Alav’s death was suffocation and neck injury.
The police noted that both suspects were university students and requested that they be sent to prison for a period not exceeding three months until they are tried.
During the court proceedings, suspect Brayn Gibip Camerounaise said, “We did not intend to carry out this act; we are very sorry. What we did is a very bad thing. We apologise, please forgive us“. The other suspect also expressed remorse, stating, “We did not want to kill the woman; we never had such an intention. We are very sorry. We committed a crime, and there will be consequences“.
