Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 98-12-05

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Saturday, December 5, 1998

Who killed the Chinese students?

THE VICIOUS murder of a Chinese student couple continued to dominate the front pages yesterday, with gory details of the attack reported.

Phileleftheros stated that the girl had been raped before she and her boyfriend were strangled with a length of twine.

The murder was a deadly act in four parts, the daily stated. After a violent struggle at the granny house the two students rented in Limassol town, the two victims were abducted and then attacked at two separate sites near the Troodos mountain village of Prodromos. Their dead bodies were then thrown into a deep ravine on the Platres to Trooditissa monastery road.

Evidence found by police suggests one of the victims, the man, managed to get away from his assailants at one point. A chase followed before the murderers caught up with him and killed him, the paper reported.

Phileleftheros also reported that a Chinese student had emerged as a suspect for the attack. Police ordered that all would-be travellers of Asiatic origin be barred from leaving the country, the paper said. Police were keen to talk to a Chinese fellow-student of the victims' who had not been sighted for the past two days, the paper reported.

But Machi reported that police were almost certain the murderers were Cypriots. The motive remained unclear, but indications were the attackers knew their way around the Troodos mountains very well - suggesting they were locals.

Simerini noted how "curious" it was that the victims' neighbours had heard nothing during the attack, seeing as evidence suggested there had been a violent struggle in the couple's granny flat.

Police found pools of blood at the flat and also that all the victims' possessions had been removed.

According to Alithia, it was a young woman journalist who had located the flat the two victims shared and alerted police.

On the S-300 saga, the paper also reported that the National Council was set to convene in Athens to discuss the hot potato. This would allow the Greek and Cypriot governments to arrive at a joint decision on what to do about the missiles without there being any possibility of misunderstandings or failures in communication, the paper reported.

Left-wing Haravghi led on US Ambassador Kenneth Brill's statement that the US would be happy if the missiles were deployed anywhere except on the island, thus backing proposals that the S-300s go to Crete.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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