Police have arrested an alleged accomplice who allegedly helped a Turkish Cypriot father kidnap his two-year-old son from his British mother’s home in Limassol, Cyprus.
The alleged accomplice of a Turkish Cypriot who allegedly kidnapped his British infant son in Cyprus has been arrested.
Local police said the 29-year-old father kidnapped the two-year-old boy from his British mother’s home in the tourist hotspot of Limassol after breaking into the property with another man. The couple then allegedly fled the scene in a small white car.
Officers have now arrested a 53-year-old Turkish Cypriot man in connection with the kidnapping, saying the man appears to have collaborated with the boy’s father, who is still wanted by police.
Limassol deputy police chief Lefteris Kyriakou said police located and searched the getaway vehicle.
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The boy’s father was already subject to a domestic violence arrest warrant after the mother reported him for domestic violence in November of last year.
Kyriakou said officials believe he crossed illegally into Cyprus from an uncontrolled point in the Turkish-occupied territories in the island’s north.
The incident was reported to the Bicommunal Technical Committee on Crime, which deals with shared crime between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, Kyriakou added.
The British mother is part of the ‘Hope’ program which offers support to victims of domestic abuse, police said. The scheme allows victims to press a button on their mobile phones to immediately notify police that they are in danger.
Kyriakou said the woman did not press the button during the alleged abduction, possibly due to shock.
According to Cypriot media outlet SigmaLive, the suspect used a rented vehicle, accompanied by the 53-year-old man, to visit the mother’s house.
There, he allegedly attacked the woman and tried to push her into the pool before grabbing the 23-month-old child and fleeing the scene.
The father is believed to have returned to Famagusta, a port town on the east coast of the island under Turkish Cypriot control, where he allegedly shared a video of the boy on social media.
