Larnaca Criminal Court has postponed until January 26 the court case of the 17-year-old boy suspected of the murder of 22-year-old British Cypriot Michael Antony-Louis Mina in Larnaca last November.

In court on Monday, the teenager’s lawyer Giannis Polychronis requested and was granted legal aid after court chairman, Nicolaos Santis, took into consideration the financial situation of the 17-year-old’s family.

Polychronis asked for the postponement arguing there were gaps in the evidence such as phone data and in the audiovisual material of the crime reconstruction by the police.

The court also heard that the teenager’s blood test results show ‘various substances’ which according to Polychronis are of the ‘highest importance’ for the case.

The 17-year-old will remain in custody in the Central Prisons after the prosecution argued that there was a risk of him fleeing.

The dispute between the two young men began last summer when the suspect started to date Mina’s ex-girlfriend.

The suspect’s girlfriend told investigators that the he had called Mina to meet and settle their differences face to face after Mina hurled insults at her.

When they met at Mina’s apartment lobby at the Mackenzie area, the 17-year-old claimed that the victim attacked him on sight and that he stabbed Mina in the neck with a special forces, 12cm knife he brought with him for protection.

After his arrest, the suspect took investigators to a field in Larnaca where the murder weapon was found buried.

A 26-year-old friend of the suspect, was also arrested, was charged in writing and released.

The teenager was a troubled youth known to the police and social services and he had been arrested on numerous occasions mainly for burglary, arson, drug abuse and car theft.

According to the police he was part of 60 separate investigations. He served jail time from July 2013 to October 2013 while on another occasion he received a two-year suspended sentence for car theft.

Cyprus Mail