Two men, aged 35 years old and 31 years old, were on Monday released on bail following their latest court hearing into their parts in the violent evictions which occurred in the Larnaca suburb of Oroklini a little over a week ago, with their trial set to begin on May 19.

The 35-year-old was the building’s manager and had been arrested on the day of the incident, while the 31-year-old was arrested on Sunday. The pair face charges including conspiracy to commit a felony, grievous bodily harm, and intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Both men were released on bail amounting to €5,000, while their travel documents were confiscated, and they were placed on the country’s “stop list”.

The incident began as an attempted eviction of a group of third-country nationals from a block of flats eventually turned violent and ended with a 27-year-old man requiring a craniectomy, a type of brain surgery where a part of one’s skull is removed by a surgeon to relieve pressure.

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In total, 11 people have been arrested in connection with the incident. In addition to the two who were released on bail on Monday, three Cypriot nationals were arrested, questioned, and released, while six third-country nationals were also arrested.

Of those six, five were found to have been living in Cyprus without the requisite papers. Three of them have already been deported, while procedures are underway for the other two to be deported.

A United Nations high commission for refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson told the House interior committee on Thursday that the incident had been “taken as a racist attack”.

The spokesperson said the UNHCR has been concerned about the living standards in the block of flats, “with no electricity, running water, or waste collection”, and added that the issue had been raised “repeatedly” with the authorities.

“They said that on Saturday, a group of people with their faces covered broke windows and doors and asked them to leave, and that they had taken it as a racist attack. We are concerned about such incidents,” the representative said, before calling for a full investigation into the matter to be launched.

Earlier, Oroklini deputy mayor Neophytos Fakontis said the block of flats had been an issue for a while, adding that local authorities have been “sounding the alarm since 2017 about the unacceptable situation” in the building.

He said the building’s inhabitants, who are primarily of African origin, were living “in miserable conditions, without water and electricity, amidst piles of garbage and filth”.