NICOSIA, Jan 28 (AFP) - A Turkish Cypriot court remanded three more suspects in custody Friday in the murder of a fugitive banker and his family, but there was still no word on how prosecutors planned to pursue a case in which all the evidence is in the hands of police in the government-held south.
The court ordered Ali Falyali, Sabri Yildirim and Zafer Eriz held for three days. It was not immediately clear whether they were Turkish Cypriot or Turkish.
Their remand brought to eight the number of suspects detained in the breakaway north in connection with the triple murder of Turkish Cypriot banker Elmaz Guzelyurtlu, his wife and teenage daughter.
Greek Cypriot police found the three bodies beside the main Nicosia-Larnaca motorway on January 15, apparently executed at close range in a mafia-style killing.
The banker had fled north Cyprus in the year 2000 following the collapse of his Everest Bank with estimated debts of 42 million dollars that left him a long list of Turkish Cypriot enemies.
But given all the forensic evidence from the crime scene is in the hands of the island's internationally recognised government, observers have questioned how any prosecution can proceed through the Turkish Cypriot courts.
01/28/2005 19:39 GMT - AFP