NICOSIA, Feb 8 (AFP) - Turkish Cypriot judicial authorities said Tuesday they would release eight suspects held over the murder of a fugitive banker, his wife and daugther citing insufficient evidence to charge them.
The chief prosecutor of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Akin Sait, told the local TAK agency that the decision stemmed from lack of cooperation by authorities in the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot south of the island, where the murders were committed last month.
The material Turkish Cypriot authorities possess in connection with the case is not sufficient to level charges against the suspects, Sait said.
The eight men include four Turkish Cypriots and a Turk. Officials have not yet clarified whether the other three are Turkish or Turkish Cypriots.
They were expected to be relased from jail later in the day.
Greek Cypriot police found the bodies of Elmaz Guzelyurtlu, 52, his wife and teenage daughter beside a highway on January 15, apparently executed at close range in a mafia-style killing.
The Turkish Cypriot banker had fled to the Greek Cypriot south following the collapse in 2000 of his Everest Bank with estimated debts of 42 million dollars that left him a long list of Turkish Cypriot enemies.
The case posed a legal conundrum for the two rival sides of Cyprus as the suspects were detained in the Turkish north, while findings from the crime scene and other possible evidence remained in the hands of authorities in the Greek south.
The island has been partitioned along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey invaded the north following an Athens-engineered coup aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece.
02/08/2005 12:44 GMT - AFP