Briton denies murdering terminally ill wife in Cyprus

A Briton has pleaded not guilty before the Paphos criminal court to murdering his terminally ill wife as his defence team called for the charges to be changed to assisted suicide.

UK-based Justice Abroad is representing, with Cypriot lawyers, David Hunter, a 74-year-old British man charged with murder.

At the hearing on Thursday at the Paphos criminal court, Hunter entered a not guilty plea, and his trial was set for 18 April 2022.

Hunter will remain in custody at Nicosia Central Prison until his trial.

His defence team will be writing to the Cypriot Attorney General requesting that an alternative charge of assisting suicide be considered.

Michael Polak of Justice Abroad said in a statement: “We will be submitting that assisting suicide would be a much more appropriate charge than murder which carries a mandatory life sentence.”

The Cyprus parliament is currently discussing the legalisation of euthanasia, a taboo subject among the majority Christian Greek orthodox community.

Hunter’s daughter Lesley has launched a Crowd Justice campaign to fund the defence of her father.

“My dad devoted himself to caring for my mum. We love him very much and want to help him in any way possible.

“My father is in the latter stages of his life, and we just want him to be with us,” said Lesley Hunter.

David Hunter is a retired miner from Northumberland, England, who retired to Cyprus with his wife, Janice.

They had been together for 56 years and were teenage sweethearts.

“Over the last five years, Janice became increasingly unwell.

“She was suffering from blood cancer and was in a great deal of pain, and her quality of life had drastically diminished.

“This was a terminal disease that had taken the life of her sister, and the pain she was under was getting worse,” said Justice Abroad.