NICOSIA — Cypriot police searched on Friday for more victims of a suspected serial killer, in a case which has shocked the Mediterranean island and exposed the authorities to charges of “criminal indifference” because the dead women were foreigners.
The main opposition party, the left-wing AKEL, called for the resignation of Cyprus’ justice minister and police chief.
Police were combing three different locations west of the capital Nicosia for victims of the suspected killer, a 35-year-old army officer who has been in detention for a week.
Police sources said the suspect had confessed to seven killings, making it by far the worst peacetime crime committed against women on the island in living memory.
A team of British detectives is due to arrive on the island on Monday to help with the investigation, police said.
The bodies of three women, including two thought to be from the Philippines, have been recovered. Police sources said the suspect had indicated the location of the third body, found on Thursday, and had said the person was “either Indian or Nepali.”
“These women came here to earn a living, to help their families. They lived away from their families. And the earth swallowed them, nobody was interested,” AKEL lawmaker Irene Charalambides told Reuters.
The Bridge of Love, a popular tourist attraction in CyprusShutterstock“This killer will be judged by the court but the other big question is the criminal indifference shown by the others when the reports first surfaced. I believe, as does my party, that the justice minister and the police chief should resign. They are irrevocably exposed.”
Police have said they will investigate any perceived shortcomings in their handling of the case.
Vulnerability
One person who did attempt to alert the authorities over the disappearances, a 70-year-old Cypriot citizen, has said his motives were questioned by police.
One activist said a two-tier system where some non-Cypriots did not enjoy the same rights as locals had exacerbated a flawed immigration system and the vulnerability of migrant women.
“We had repeatedly said that migrants and refugees to our country are particularly vulnerable,” said Doros Polycarpou, executive director of Kisa, a migrant and refugee support group.
The bodies of the two Filipino women reported missing in May and August 2018 were found in an abandoned mine shaft this month. Police discovered the body of the third woman at an army firing range about 14 km (9 miles) from the mine shaft.
Police are now searching for the 6-year-old daughter of the first victim found, a Romanian mother who disappeared with her 8-year-old child in 2016, and a woman from the Philippines who vanished in December 2017.
The suspect has not been named by authorities, in line with Cypriot legal practice.
A public vigil for the missing was planned later on Friday.
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, who is visiting China, has been “profoundly shocked” and deeply affected by the deaths, the presidency said in a statement.
