The hearing was scheduled for July 16 and, until then, the 30-year-old was ordered to remain in custody. He faces two charges, one for each child, relating to causing death through a reckless and negligent act.
Defence lawyer Andriana Klaidi stated that her client denies guilt in relation to the charges he faces.
The prosecution of the British Bases requested that the 30-year-old remain in custody until the next court appearance, citing both the risk of absconding and the seriousness of the offences with which he is charged.
The prosecution also presented evidence according to which, after finishing work last Sunday, the accused did not return to his residence but instead went and bought alcohol. The representative of the prosecution further stated that if the 30-year-old had returned home in a timely manner, the tragedy might have been prevented.
For her part, the defence lawyer rejected these claims by the prosecution. She further argued that the accused should be released under conditions, saying that he is living through a tragedy and is unable to go to the home of his children.
The court, based on the information presented before it, concluded that there is a risk of flight and therefore ordered that the defendant remain in custody until the hearing of the case.
It is recalled that the two brothers were recorded on CCTV footage playing on Sunday morning in the courtyard of the apartment block where they were living with their father and later entering the fatal vehicle through an unlocked rear door, continuing their play inside.
However, due to a fault in the vehicle's locking system, the children became locked inside and remained trapped in the car for several hours, eventually being found dead in the afternoon by their stepmother, apparently as a result of suffocation.
The bodies of the two children will be transferred to Bulgaria for burial, with the costs to be covered by the Republic of Cyprus.
Stepmother Breaks Her Silence
The boys' 38-year-old stepmother, who was released last Wednesday without restrictive conditions because she did not have parental custody of the children and does not appear to bear any criminal responsibility for what happened, spoke to Bulgarian media, saying that eight-year-old Yanislav and ten-year-old Georgi had arrived from Bulgaria around the middle of last May to spend their summer holidays with their father.
Following her release, she appealed to the media to stop what she described as unnecessary reporting.
“We were arrested, but I was released because I bear no responsibility. There is no guilty person in this story,” she said.
Visibly moved, she also pleaded for the circulation of various rumours to stop.
“Do not play with people's pain. Do not say that the stepmother or the father is to blame. I hope no one ever experiences something like this. Stop talking about things you do not know,” she said, stressing that the entire family remains in deep shock.
