A woman found murdered in her Paphos home on Monday had been given the option to go to a women’s shelter with her children for safety but turned down the offer.
This emerged on Tuesday amid public scrutiny on how police and social services had handled the case of the 31-year-old Syrian victim.
Ghada Al Nouri was found dead by a social worker at her home at around 11.30 am on Monday. She had been stabbed to death.
Police have issued an arrest warrant for her estranged husband Hussein Farouh and have urged the public to come forward with any information that can help authorities track him down.
A post-mortem examination carried out by state pathologist Angeliki Papapeta late on Monday night determined that the victim died of internal bleeding from a sharp weapon.
During a search of the house, police found a knife in the kitchen bin which was broken in half and which investigators believe is the murder weapon.
Police said that the victim had filed a complaint of domestic violence on January 10. Her estranged husband was arrested and held for two days, a restraining order was issued against him and the case referred to trial next month. Meanwhile, the man was ordered to hand in his travel documents and had to report to the police station twice a week.
Police said that after the complaint was filed on January 10 it emerged that the woman had been a victim of domestic violence in December but had not reported it to police.
A spokesman said that it was suggested to the woman that she go to a shelter with her children, but she chose not to.
The social services had been supporting the family continuously and systematically at all levels, social services director Maria Kyratzi told Radio Active on Tuesday.
She said that social workers had taken all the appropriate steps to support the woman, while the social worker in charge of the case had given the 31-year-old her personal telephone so that she could contact her at any time.
Kyratzi urged the media to be careful in their reporting about the children for their own protection and said some of the information to have seen the light of day did not exactly correspond to the facts.
Read more:
https://in-cyprus.com/police-still-searching-for-murder-suspect/
