Europe’s Most Wanted List: Two Criminals Linked to Murders in Cyprus

The EU Most Wanted website has released a new list featuring 24 of Europe’s most wanted individuals, which includes profiles of murderers and criminals sought for particularly heinous crimes. Among them are two individuals connected to murders committed in Cyprus.

According to local reports, one of the fugitives is 56-year-old Alex Burreli from Albania. The crime took place on June 23, 2016, when Burreli, armed and accompanied by an accomplice, stormed a restaurant in Ayia Napa and killed three people.

The victims included businessman Phanos Kalopsidiotis, police officer Elias Hatzieftimiou, his wife Skevi Hatzieftimiou, and one of the attackers, Jani Vogli, who was killed during the gunfight. The attack also left another police officer and a restaurant patron with serious injuries.

The second attacker fled the scene in a car that was later found burned out. Authorities believe that Burreli was also involved in planning other murders in Cyprus as part of the same criminal gang behind the Ayia Napa killings.

The second fugitive on the list is 51-year-old Sali Ahmed, also known as Sali Musa, from Bulgaria. At the time of the crime, Ahmed was reportedly residing in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

He is wanted by both Cypriot and international authorities, along with Mehmet Akpinar, for the premeditated murder of British citizen George Henry Low, who was fatally stabbed in the neck on August 14, 2016, in Ayia Napa. Ahmed and Akpinar are also wanted for the attempted murder of British national Ben Joseph Robert Barker, who suffered multiple stab wounds in the same attack. Both suspects fled the scene and remain at large.