Man jailed for the murder of flatmate
A MAN was sentenced to 27 years in prison on Monday for the April 2019 murder of his flatmate.
Ezeh Christopher was handed down the lengthy sentence at Lefkoşa Assize Court for the killing of Walshak Augustine Ngok, 25.
Ngok, a Nigerian national, was found beaten to death at the entrance to the TMT Memorial Forest on the Haspolat-Taşkent highway.
Accomplices Christopher Nana Fosu Awoture Nkansah and Wayne Ayanda Moyo were sentenced to three years each for “causing the death of someone as a result of recklessness and carelessness”.
Prosecutor Atilla Enver Etkin and the defendants’ lawyers Cemal Gündüz, Özgü Özyiğit and Süleyman Özsoylular were present in court, along with the three-judge panel.
Reading out the verdict Judge Nüvit Gazi emphasised that the crime of “murder” is one of the
most serious crimes and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment under Article 154 of the Penal Code.
Judge Gazi noted that the other two defendants’ offences carry a maximum seven-year prison sentence.
The judge recalled that the defendant had taken a yacht tour with the deceased and his friends on the day of the incident.
Then, after an argument with Ngok in a restaurant in Girne,
Christopher “battered” the victim before leaving the scene.
Judge Gazi stated that Ngok then “ran into the accused in front of the apartment building where they stayed” and that Christopher “attacked him again”.
The judge went on to say that the defendant “continued to beat [Ngok] in the apartment they shared”.
Christopher “dragged him down the stairs from the fourth floor to the ground floor, hitting the victim’s head on the steps”.
Christopher then put Ngok in a car “with the help of the other two defendants and left him in the TMT forest in a seriously injured and incapacitated state, resulting in Ngok’s death”.
Judge Gazi emphasised that Ngok had suffered a “head trauma and cerebral haemorrhage” and that he had been “strangled” by Christopher. “The way the deceased was killed was terrifying,” Judge Gazi added.