A 31-year-old man was remanded in police custody for eight days on Sunday by Limassol district court after he was arrested the previous days in connection with the murder of businessman Stavros Demosthenous in Limassol last month.

He is the ninth person arrested in connection with the killing.

The 31-year-old was arrested at around 4pm in Limassol on Saturday after a warrant was issued against him.

He is thought to be a member of the same family as the two men arrested on Friday in Thessaloniki. They remain in Greece but extradition procedures against them have started.

Shortly after their arrest, a car with Cyprus plates was found at one of their homes, which is registered in the name of the 31-year-old. Inside the car documents were found relating to their departure from Cyprus on a ferry for Turkey.

The car is known to have crossed via the Ayios Dhometios crossing point into the north on October 18, the day after the murder.

The court heard there is evidence against the suspect hid the clothes worn by one of the pair in Greece at the time of the murder in his house.

When he was read out the charges he faces, the latest suspect reportedly said “I don’t know anything”. In his written statement he said he would say whatever he had to say in court.

He told police on October 18, the day after the murder, he crossed to the north alone and boarded a boat for Turkey, from where he drove to Thessaloniki for work reasons, and ran into one of the two 28-year-old arrested in Greece by chance.

Demosthenous was shot 500m from his Ayios Athanasios home on October 17 when he was the passenger in a car being driven by his 18-year-old son. The shooter was in a van in front of his car.

The son carried on driving but was involved in a traffic accident on the highway at which point he flagged down another car, the driver of which took his 49-year-old father to Limassol hospital, where his death was diagnosed.

The remaining arrests are a 51-year-old man, a 44-year-old man, a 30-year-old inmate, a 58-year-old man, a 39-year-old Greek national, and a 30-year-old man serving a sentence for drug offences.

The 39-year-old Greek man has been released but the others all remain in custody.