Two men appeared in court in northern Nicosia on Thursday, accused of having attempted to steal a dairy farm near the village of Kythrea by pulling a gun on its owner and threatening him with his life.
Police officer Huseyin Ergulec told the court that the pair, who live in the Kyrenia district, had entered the man’s farm on multiple occasions while armed and pointed the gun at him, demanding that he give them the farm and 40 million TL (€1.1m) in cash.
The farm’s owner said he was told, “you will pay us 40 million TL. You will give us this farm, or we will bury you”.
He then recorded the two suspect’s threats and sent the recordings on to the police.
Ergulec said it could not be proven so far that the pair had borne a firearm during any of the altercations and requested that the pair be bailed pending a trial.
Judge Nuray Necdet acquiesced, and released one of the two suspects on a 35,000TL (€935) bail, and the other on a 50,000TL (€1,335) bail.
Both have been banned from leaving the north until the trial begins, while the suspect released on the smaller bail also had to find two guarantors to sign bonds worth 400,000TL (€10,683) and must present himself to his nearest police station once a week.
The suspect released on the larger bail had to find two guarantors to sign bonds worth 800,000TL (€21,337) and must present himself to his nearest police station four times per week.
