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A courtroom in Cyprus has adjourned the trial of a Briton, accused of killing his cancer-stricken spouse, for an eighth time, highlighting the sensitivity that the case has elicited in a rustic the place euthanasia is outlawed.
A choose sitting within the south-western city of Paphos delayed the listening to for every week after the prosecutor instructed the tribunal that the legal professional normal, the island’s high authorized officer, required extra time to check the file.
“Additional clarifications are wanted,” mentioned Andreas Hadjikyrou, the prosecuting counsel. “That is the primary time {that a} case like that is being heard in Cyprus.”
David Hunter, who has been imprisoned for the reason that demise of his spouse, Janice, final December, regarded dismayed as he stood within the dock and it turned clear that proceedings would once more be postponed.
Tuesday’s courtroom listening to adopted the adjournment of the case final week after the British pensioner’s authorized group was requested to submit its arguments in writing. Three weeks earlier either side had knowledgeable the three-member panel of judges that as a result of progress had been made, they usually had agreed on the details of the case, Hunter could be pleading responsible to the lesser cost of manslaughter.
The 76-year-old retired miner, who has confessed to fatally blocking his terminally ailing spouse’s air passages, had beforehand stood accused of premeditated homicide.
“Information have been agreed between the defence and prosecution for a change of plea to manslaughter,” mentioned Michael Polak, the British barrister who heads the London-based authorized support group Justice Overseas, who had flown in for the listening to. “We hope that when the matter subsequent comes again earlier than the courtroom on 20 December we are able to proceed with the change of plea, the agreed details, and mitigation.”
Hunter has at all times maintained that he smothered Janice after the 75-year-old pleaded persistently with him to place her out of the ache she was struggling because of worsening leukaemia.
The couple, initially from Ashingdon, have been teenage sweethearts and had been collectively for greater than 50 years once they retired to Tremithousa, a village within the hills exterior Paphos well-liked with British expats.
By 18 December final 12 months when he carried out the alleged mercy killing, his spouse’s deteriorating well being was such that she had misplaced her eyesight and located it virtually unimaginable to eat.
Minutes later, Hunter tried to take his personal life by overdosing on alcohol and prescription capsules.
He has spent practically all the final 12 months incarcerated in Cyprus’s central jail in Nicosia, the island’s capital.
“I’m effectively sufficient however I simply need this trial to be over,” he mentioned on Tuesday. “When that is throughout hopefully I’d like to remain in Cyprus and be near her. That is the place we moved 22 years in the past and that is the place she is buried and so that is the place I need to be.”
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