Newsroom
A prison inmate serving a multiyear sentence in Nicosia was found dead in his cell on Thursday, with reports saying the man’s body showed signs he was badly beaten while correctional officers say nothing was out of the ordinary prior to the incident.
(Click here for an update to the story)
Cyprus Police said they were notified Thursday night around 9:55pm that 41-year-old Tansu Cidan was found dead in his cell at Nicosia Central Prisons.
According to prison officials, fellow inmates found Cidan unconscious in his cell, with correctional officers and medics rushing to provide first aid “but he did not regain consciousness by the time the ambulance arrived.”
Local media said evidence had been collected from the scene including a lock found in a trash can, with media speculating the device might have been used during an attack
State forensic examiners Angeliki Papetta and Orthodoxos Orthodoxou later visited Nicosia General Hospital, where Cidan’s body had already been taken for an autopsy, with reports saying the inmate had signs of multiple wounds and traumatic injuries in various parts of his body.
Local media said evidence had been collected from the scene including a lock found in a trash can, with media speculating the device might have been used during an attack.
A prison officer, who says he was on foot patrol in Cidan’s ward a day earlier, reportedly said he did not find anything suspicious and nothing was out of the ordinary.
According to local media, a fellow inmate was also purported to have told officers that he had seen Cidan walking within his subsection some 40 minutes before the incident.
CID Nicosia has taken over the case.
An official report issued Friday morning said police were investigating premeditated murder, adding that a post mortem later in the afternoon was expected to reveal the cause of death.
Reports also said CCTV footage from the prison was central in the investigation, after prison officials confirmed that Cidan did not have any physical marks on his body on Thursday afternoon when roll call took place at 5pm.
In a statement the prison administration expressed condolences to the relatives of the victim, adding that the family was notified after the medic on staff pronounced Cidan’s death at the scene.
Cidan, a Turkish Cypriot convicted felon known to police on both sides of the divided island, was serving an 8-year sentence in the south after he was convicted on drug charges back in July.
His photo had emerged in April when Cyprus Police were looking for him following a wild car chase in Limassol in connection with a meth operation.
