A 26-year old man was charged on Thursday with the murder of a Scottish woman whose body was found in a suitcase in central Athens last month.
The defendant, who entered Greece as an unaccompanied minor from Afghanistan in 2016, is also accused of robbery and illegal gun possession. The suspect was remanded in custody until the trial.
Police have identified the victim as Elisabeth Jane Ross, 38, an aid worker who had been missing since July 15.
In his testimony before an investigative magistrate, the suspect allegedly denied the murder charge, claiming that he found the 38-year-old dead in the bathroom of an apartment in Exarchia, which belongs to him and his wife. He also allegedly claimed that he panicked and, fearing that he would be implicated in the case, placed the body in a suitcase and transported it to an abandoned construction site on Evelpidon Street, in the busy Kypseli neighbourhood.
Ross’ body was found on July 18 wrapped in black fabric, in a green suitcase left in the abandoned building. A post-mortem examination could not determine the cause of death due to decomposition, but did not rule out asphyxiation, a police official said.
