A Saudi millionaire missing in Cyprus since February and believed murdered may have planned his disappearance to elope with a mysterious Russian girlfriend, the authorities said Tuesday.
This is one of the scenarios being considered by Cyprus police who have had no luck in tracing businessman Rakan Khalied Hathleen's whereabouts after nine months of searching.
"There is information that he left the island with a Russian girlfriend but evidence that he went abroad is still being checked out," Justice Minister Nicos Koshis told AFP Tuesday.
However the minister conceded the case is as mysterious as it is puzzling.
"There are no signs that he was murdered on the island, yet there is no evidence he left the island and is now living somewhere else," said Koshis.
If 52-year-old Hathleen did leave the island he did not use his own passport. One possibility is that the businessman, who reportedly married into the Saudi royal family, may not want to be found.
"We are looking at all the options and tracing the use of his credit card abroad," Koshis said.
Some 70,000 dollars from the Saudi's bank account went missing and one credit card was last used in Russia, said an official source.
The Saudi authorities have kept close tabs on the case and sent their ambassador from Greece to monitor progress in Nicosia.
Ambassador Abdullah Saed Al-Medi arrived for the second time last week to be briefed on the case when Koshis informed him of the "other woman" scenario.
Police first believed the disappearance of Hathleen from his Limassol residence on February 18, could be the work of a Russian Mafia hit.
A 41-year-old Uzbekistan woman was living with Hathleen at the time and departed with her 19-year-old son, deported from the island as an illegal immigrant on February 21.
They were initial suspects before the prospect of another Russian mistress entered the police equation -- NICOSIA (AFP)
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