Murder suspect arrested,

A PAKISTANI suspect in the İskele murder of a Turkish Cypriot artist and ceramics teacher was arrested in Limassol on Thursday after police were tipped off that he had been spotted in the street.

Muhammed Salman, 23, was picked up by a police patrol and taken into custody by Limassol CID at around 10pm after a warrant was secured for his arrest on a charge of illegal entry to South Cyprus.

He had been staying with a 20-year-old friend, also from Pakistan, who was legally resident in South Cyprus and was arrested for “giving asylum to an illegal immigrant”.

TRNC police said an official request for Salman to be handed over to authorities in the North had been initiated via the Bicommunal Technical Committee on Crime and Criminal Matters. The committee’s Turkish Cypriot cohead, Hakkı Önen, said: “It’s too early to say but it is likely that, as in the case of the George Low cross-border murder suspects who were tried and convicted here for illegal border crossing, the suspect will be tried for illegal entry to the South.

“Many requests are already on file from both sides for the return of suspects and we can only wait.”

The body of Lefkoşa Atatürk Trade School teacher and well-known painter, sculptor and ceramicist Hasan Işık Özgöçmen, 53, was found by a dog-walker on Sunday, September 30 in forested land between Long Beach Hotel and the Ötüken junction.

Police said last week he had been strangled two days earlier. He was found with his own belt around his neck and had suffered blows to the face.