A British man freed by a Cypriot court after being sentenced for killing his seriously ill wife said he could not find words to describe his release.
David Hunter was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife Janice, 74, in an assisted suicide at their Paphos home in 2021 and jailed for two years.
The ex-miner, 76, from Northumberland, was freed after spending 19 months in custody awaiting trial.
Outside court Hunter thanked his colliery “family” for their support.
He had told the trial his wife had “cried and begged” him to end her life as she suffered from blood cancer.
On the steps of Paphos District Court, he told the BBC: “I’d like to say thank you to all the people who’ve donated to me, and especially my mates and my workmates.
“I don’t know where I would be without them.”
“When you work in a colliery, you’re a family.”
Asked how he was feeling, he said: “I can’t describe it. I’m sorry. I wish I could, I wish I could find words to describe it, but I can’t.
“When you’re under pressure for two years, not knowing which way it’s going to go.”
His legal team had argued he should be given a suspended sentence, in a case which was a legal first in the country.
They had initially suggested he would be released by 18 August, but prison authorities freed him on Monday after they officially calculated his release date.
In mitigation last week, his defence lawyer Ritsa Pekri said his motive was to “liberate his wife from all that she was going through due to her health conditions”.
BBC / Titilayo Kupoliyi
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