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Father, Russian Fighter Afghan War Veteran, found his daughter’s murdered in Cyprus 8 years ago

Father, Afghan War Veteran, found his daughter’s murdered in Cyprus 8 years after her death,
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Nikolai Rantsev (on the left) sol his apartment to pay for his travel to Cyprus in order to find the killer of his beloved daughter. Oksana dreamt of working as a translator.
20-year old Oksana was thrown out of the window when she refused to become a prostitute.
By Marina Kuzmichyova — 17.06.2009
In 2001, Col Nikolai Rantsev (ret) has received a zinc coffin from Cyprus that contained the body of his only child Oksana. The municipal police of Limasol insisted that after 7 days from arrival to Cyprus, the 20-year old girl committed suicide. However, the official medical examination of the body carried out in Russia established that Oksana was murdered. On her grave, the father swore to find the murders. Despite the resistance from the Cyprus government, he carried out an independent investigation. And the European Court on Human Rights for the first time in its history accepted a complain on the death of the victim of sex-trafficking,  naming it “Rantsev v. Cyprus.”
Nikolai Rantsev was over 40 when Oksana was born. Veteran of the Afghan War has raised his daughter alone since she was eight—after his wife abandoned him, the daughter became the sole purpose of his life. Retired Colonel was wandering with his daughter between dorms and apartments of his former warrior buddies until in the 90’s he was finally able to get an apartment of his own. Oksana dreamt of becoming a translator and she was accepted into the Chelyabinsk State University, having had a fairly decent command of English, French and Spanish languages.
“After the second year in college, Oksana saw a newspaper ad on Russian language translator vacancy for a Greek company Noleus-Afanasius in Cyprus. She was excited by this prospect—she was hoping to learn Greek and save some money toward her language courses and college,” tells us Rantsev. “ My daughter was ecstatic that the contract was signed with her right on the spot. But it Cyprus my little Oksana was pawned off to cabaret Zigos, where the girls were forced to trick customers into spending money and to offer sex services. Upon her arrival my daughter called me , but didn’t share any of that. And in eight days she was dead.”

Life-loving Oksana paid with his life for refusing to become a prostitute

Simulating Suicide
The Cypriots sent the coffin with the daughter’s body to the father, and later issued an official statement that she committed suicide by jumping off a fifth-floor balcony. The criminal investigation and the case were closed. However, the photos included with the case documents, Oksana’s building had no balconies!
“I took Oksana’s body to the best coroner in Chelyabinsk Vladimir Novikov. He discovered that the Cypriots have not even conducted an autopsy, and the death of my daughter happened as result of two falls—one on her back, and then another one, after a short period of time, on her stomach. I decided to find out at any cost who killed her,” said the girl’s father
Nikolai sold his apartment and headed for Limasol. He hired a translator and re-tracked Oksana’s pass, which uncovered a slew of inconsistencies in the report submitted by detective Holorobusi.
“ I found an eye-witness who saw how my daughter died,” says Rantsev. “ On the morning of March 28, 2001, a person who lived on the first floor of that building, George Appio, was smoking by the window when he saw something fall down. He saw on the asphalt a nude young woman, whose entire body was in bruises, and called the police. Appio said that not right before the arrival of the police, a man ran out of the house and absconded by car.
In order to gain access the documents on the case, Rantsev had to hire an attorney at $300 an hour rate. Having learned that the testimony of the sole eye witness has disappeared from the file, the father inundated the Cyprus government with letters demanding to restart the investigation. The Cypriots started devising ways to stall him. They were hoping that he would run out of money and would have to go back to Russia. But Nikolai, who in the previous eight years survived two heart attacks and a stroke, came back to the island six times and was able to discover the truth.

Priest Savvas Mihaelidis founded a shelter for victims of sex-trafficking

Company Noleus-Afanasius, with which Oksana signed her contract, turned out to be a front one-day company. Right away, the employers confiscated the girl’s passport and took her to the owner of cabaret, pimp Marius Afanasio, to whom she announced that she would not work as a prostitute no matter how much she would get paid. He tried to break Oksana—starved her, threatened to get her addicted to drugs. But she didn’t give up and tried to escape. Unsuccessfully. Marius took her to the police department to impress upon her that everyone around was on his side—escape is senseless—he would have her rot in prison. The Cypriot werewolves attempted to brainwash the escape, but since the Russian spoke several languages and demanded a lawyer, they didn’t dare to keep her in prison.
The owner of the cabaret took Oksana to the house of his friend, Mario Psevdioti. The two of them were beating her up until the morning. At 5:20 am they threw her out of the window on the fifth floor. But the girl survived the fall. Then the degenerates came downstairs, and dragged her back into the apartment. And in 50 minutes they threw her out again.
The Magnanimity of Attorney General
Search for his daughter’s murders took Rantsev to the priest of the Russian denomination of the Orthodox Church of St. Stilian in Limasol Savvas Mihaelidis. Ten years ago he founded a shelter for the victims of sex-trafficking, which currently hosts nine girls.
“ I eagerly started helping the investigation,” said the priest. “Only a few girls that come from Russia, Moldova, Ukraine to work as waitresses, maids, guides and getting into a similar situation put up such an unyielding resistance to prostitution. I went to meet the Attorney General of Cyprus several times.”
According to the priest, the Attorney General advised him to convince Rantsev to settle for an impressive sum. Insulted by such offer, Rantsev decided to meet with the Attorney General. To get there, he had to learn English and also gave a speech at the international conference dedicated to human trafficking. Only after that their meeting took place.

The Police department that didn’t protect Oksana against the pimp.

“ The tears of the old man didn’t move the Attorney General, the case of his dead daughter didn’t budge, “ says Mihaelidis. The case was reopened only after the European Court on Human Rights accepted the complaint from Rantsev.  The case was titled “ Rantsev v. Cyprus”. This set an important precedent in Strasburg—prior to that the court had never accepted cases on the victims of sex trafficking and slavery. And now, the court mandated Cyprus to review the case on Oksana’s death. Experienced lawyers from Strasburg were assigned to the investigation.
“ I just wish to live to see the day when the murderes are brought to justice,” sighs Nikolai Rantsev. “I hope my heart can get through this. Because, really, I died in 2001, when my daughter passed away.

Oksana’s best friends come to her grave every year to remember her.

Note
Annually, 11 000 prostitutes come to Cyprus from the former Soviet Union. 60% from them under the cover of exotic dancers. There are 28 cabarets located on the street where priest Savvas Mihaelidis lives. Each employs from five to fifty Russian-speaking sex-workers.
Expert’s Comment
Mihael Parapetov, International Civil Lawyer:
- the police department was well aware of how the owner of Zigos made his money. By failing to protect Oksana from the pimp, and by refusing to reopen her case, Cyprus has simultaneously violated several of the European Union conventions.