Paphos, Cyprus. A British father arrested after his three-year-old son died following a fall from a fourth-floor hotel window is expected to be released under strict conditions, while the attorney-general considers whether to bring criminal charges.
Police said their investigation has been completed and submitted for legal examination, while the father’s toxicology results remain pending.
Investigation submitted
Paphos assistant police operations director and police spokesman Michalis Nikolaou said the case file had been forwarded for further examination.
“The investigator has submitted the case for further examination. As far as any prosecution is concerned, the decision will be taken by the attorney-general,” Nikolaou told the Cyprus Mail on Friday.
Nikolaou said that if the attorney-general decides criminal proceedings should begin immediately, the father will be brought before a court. He said he believed the man would instead be released under strict conditions while the legal process continued.
Toxicology results pending
Nikolaou corrected earlier police information concerning the father’s toxicology tests, stating that the results were still pending.
The father’s lawyer, Petros Stavrou, criticised his client’s continued detention, saying there was no justification for holding him while the investigation was under way.
“Everything I had to say, I said in my letter which was sent on Tuesday 14th to the police. I asked for the man to be released,” Stavrou told the Cyprus Mail.
Hotel fall
According to reports, the father was playing with the child while holding him when the boy slipped through an open section of a sliding window that the father had allegedly not realised was open.
The child fell to the ground and later died from his injuries. The family had arrived in Cyprus in the early hours of Sunday for a holiday and had been due to stay at the hotel until July 25.