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A 24-year-old Russian national was sentenced to two years in prison for causing serious bodily harm to a 49-year-old male who was pursuing and kissing the younger man’s girlfriend.
The Larnaca-Famagusta District Court handed down the two-year sentence to Alexander Osikov, who attacked a Greek Cypriot male twice his age back in 2017, punching him on the neck and causing him a carotid artery dissection.
The incident took place in April, according to court documents, when the 49-year-old man went to a pub in Ayia Napa and saw a 27-year-old Russian woman who was having fun with another female friend.
The Russian woman, who was Osikov’s girlfriend, later left the pub with the Greek Cypriot male heading towards her apartment.
The judge also said that the girlfriend's provocative and unacceptable behaviour ultimately became the cause but also the only reason behind the unfortunate incident
At one point, near the apartment building, the man and the woman started kissing in public, when Osikov saw them and run towards them.
The Russian punched the Cypriot man in the neck, causing him dizziness but in the following days there were no visible or noticeable symptoms.
But a few days later the Cypriot man, who woke up and suddenly couldn’t speak, managed to go to work but collapsed as soon as he arrived at his job.
The man ultimately suffered from ischemia, a restriction in blood supply that causes a shortage of oxygen and brain damage. He is still undergoing physical therapy with low chances of recovery and communicates only with single words or short phrases.
The judge said the reaction of the young man seeing his girlfriend kissing another man was “unacceptable and provocative”.
Crime of passion
However, the court also found that the assault took place “in the heat of the moment” without any planning or thinking on the part of the young man.
Osikov’s lawyer pleaded with the judge to hand down a suspended sentence, citing a clean criminal background, his youth, his family circumstances, his remorse, and finally his suicide attempt in Nicosia’s Athalassa mental hospital.
The judge took into consideration the mitigating factors, saying that the incident “was caused by the behaviour the 24-year-old man’s girlfriend with her provocative and unacceptable behaviour ultimately becoming the cause but also the only reason behind the unfortunate incident.”
