The family of Greek Cypriot soldier Thanasis Nicolaou whose cause of death in 2005 was disputed have finally heard he was strangled, according to specialized lab tests carried out in Greece.
The family of the then 26-year-old soldier had never believed he had committed suicide as was insinuated by army and police authorities at the time of his death.
The latest developments are expected to set in motion new investigations aiming to trace the perpetrators, Philenews reported on Thursday.
The soldier was found dead under a bridge while serving his army sentence.
The family believes he was bullied, beaten to death and then thrown off the bridge of Alassa in Nicosia where his body was subsequently found, not far from his parked car.
A court order, okayed by the attorney general’s office, paved the way in December for the exhumation of his bones and for a new post mortem examination to take place.
This time, by coroners assigned by both the state and the distraught family.
The family took Cyprus before the European Court of Human Rights in 2010 on the grounds that the investigation into their son’s death was incomplete and insufficient.
The ECHR sentenced Cyprus for the death of Nicolaou on January 28, last year, after accepting the family’s claim that authorities had failed to conduct sufficient investigations into his death.
