NICOSIA (AFP) - Turkish-Cypriot judicial officials said yesterday they would release eight suspects held over the murder of a fugitive banker and his wife and daughter as there was insufficient evidence to charge them.

The chief prosecutor in the Turkish-occupied north, Akin Sait, told the local TAK agency the decision was forced by lack of cooperation from authorities in the Greek-Cypriot south, where the murders were committed last month. The material Turkish-Cypriot authorities possess in connection with the case is not sufficient to level charges against the suspects, Sait said.

Cypriot police found the bodies of Elmaz Guzelyurtlu, 52, his wife and teenage daughter by a highway on January 15, apparently executed at close range. The Turkish-Cypriot banker fled to the south following the collapse in 2000 of his Everest Bank with estimated debts of 42 million dollars.