‘Wanted’ man takes police to Supreme Court

A foreign national who says he was living in Denmark with his family ended up being detained in Bulgaria on a Cypriot warrant, with his lawyer saying it was issued without due diligence.

According to local media, a Nigerian man in his early 40’s who married a Bulgarian woman, had lived in Cyprus for about a decade before moving to Denmark to take on a new job.

But when he flew to Bulgaria in September to attend a wedding, traveling with his wife, a Cypriot passport holder, and their young daughter, he was detained at Varna airport on a European warrant issued in Cyprus in March 2020.

But according to the man’s lawyer in Cyprus, the European warrant was issued in Nicosia on the basis of a local warrant in January 2017, after police suspected the Nigerian man was implicated in a robbery on the island between 30 November and 5 December of 2016.

The man says he left Cyprus with his family after taking a flight out of Larnaca International Airport on 26 November, adding that he never came back ever since.

According to local reports, Cypriot police obtained a court warrant from a judge after a burglar who was arrested had told investigators the loot belonged to the Nigerian man.

The lawyer has sent letters to the Chief of Police and the Attorney General, demanding that the warrants be canceled immediately.

The man was said to have been detained, handcuffed, and transferred to a detention facility where he remained in custody.

Local media said his is taking his case all the way to the Supreme Court.