Orestis trial starts Monday

The alleged serial killer in the “Orestis case” has been ordered to appear for his arraignment on Monday, where he will formerly answer to seven murder charges and one rape.

A Nicosia district judge said the suspect, 35-year-old Nikos Metaxas also known as Orestis, will go straight to criminal trial and be arraigned in court on June 24 for the murders of Marry Rose Tiburcio and her daugther Sierra Graze Seucalliuc, Αrian Palanas Lozano, Maricar Valdez Arquiola, Livia Florentina Bunea and her daughter Elena Natalia Bunea, and Asmita Khadka Bista. Police say the suspect reportedly confessed to the murders during interrogation.

Orestis, who appeared in court at the end of his eighth remand on Friday morning, is also facing rape charges from a young aspiring model, who said he raped her inside his vehicle and even recorded the act on video. He has reportedly denied the rape, maintaining that sex was consensual.

If the suspect pleads guilty to the murder charges on Monday, then the trial is expected to be very brief. Metaxas is expected to get life sentences for each of the victims, while he won’t be eligible for parole until after 25 years behind bars.

The case has shocked the public in Cyprus and overseas, with critics pointing fingers at authorities for not doing enough to protect foreign women and investigate their disappearances.

The murders came to light after a group of curious bikers saw something suspicious inside a flooded mine shaft in rural Nicosia on April 14. It turned out it was the body of a Filipina woman, who was reported as missing along with her daughter a year earlier.

False start in the investigation 

Police initially arrested a male suspect, who was the father of the missing child, on suspicion of murder but charges were quickly dropped and he was released after the name of another male was uttered in court. That name, Orestis, was implicated in the disappearance of Marry Rose and little Sierra in May 2018, with investigators finally tracking Nikos Metaxas down and arresting him on 18 April 2019.