Police apprehend Swedish fugitive
Following a coordinated manhunt, police recaptured a Swedish fugitive in the Larnaca area almost 24 hours after he escaped from a private clinic while supposedly under guard. He was found on the 5th floor of a building under construction in th
Following a coordinated manhunt, police recaptured a Swedish fugitive in the Larnaca area almost 24 hours after he escaped from a private clinic while supposedly under guard.
He was found on the 5th floor of a building under construction in the centre of Larnaca around 2pm, police said. The man will appear in court on Tuesday in connection with his escape.
Police had been searching for 49-year-old Hans Jonny Uven, a Swedish national, who fled from a private clinic in Larnaca around 4pm on Sunday.
Uven had been in the clinic for two weeks being treated for gastroenteritis and chest pains. He was arrested at Larnaca airport on December 6 on a European warrant and was taken to a private clinic in Larnaca on December 9.
Cyprus had not been his ultimate destination, just a stopover but police did not say where to.
Over the two-week period, Uven somehow loosened the bed rail to which he was handcuffed, unchained himself from the bed and climbed out a window into the car park on Sunday.
Questions were raised after two officers were on Monday suspended in connection with the escape.
The officer guarding him, a contract hire, was immediately suspended pending a disciplinary investigation. On Monday reports said a second officer, the one who had assigned the first one to guard Uven, had also been suspended.
It appears the contract officer had originally been assigned to cases related to migrant flows and may not have had the proper training to guard a prisoner in the circumstances.
Also, it has been suggested the fact Uven had time to work on loosening the bed rail meant he had been left unsupervised for long periods of time.
According to police, Uven was arrested in connection with financial offences allegedly committed between 2021 and 2024 in Sweden, possibly involving millions of euros.
Extradition proceedings had already begun and he had been due to appear in court on Monday, police said.
Swedish media reported on Monday that the money involved in the suspected fraud and embezzlement might even be as high as €90 million.
The businessman, from Gällivare, Sweden, managed mining and construction companies that went bankrupt, the reports said. The reports said the liquidator of Uven’s company was searching for assets such as shares, secret bank accounts, weapons, gold bars and a helicopter.
Questions have also been raised in Cyprus as to why he was taken to a private clinic and not to the general hospital as well as whether the escape had been planned and if there were accomplices involved.
Police had earlier appealed to the public for assistance in tracking down the fugitive.
In a statement released later in the day, the Cyprus Police Association (SAK) came to the defence of the contract officer assigned to guard Uven.
SAK said the officer had neither the experience nor the training in guarding suspects.
The officer had been hired to do another job – guard duty along the buffer zone.
“Instead, orders were issued that he guard the criminal in question, and the officer could not refuse these orders.”
SAK opined that the officer is being “unfairly accused” over the escape.
The escape comes only three months after a convicted murderer gave police the slip after he was taken to visit his family in Paphos under guard.
Doros Theophanous, 42 was serving a life sentence for the murder of his pregnant partner and her three-year-old child.
He was under a seven-team guard while visiting his family home in Choletria. In the wake of the fiasco the then police chief was fired and all involved personnel suspended.
He was caught in Limassol after three days on the run.
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