Afghan accused of killing Scottish woman in Athens to await trial in jail
ATHENS, Aug 6 (Reuters) - A Greek court ordered on Thursday that a 26-year-old Afghan boxer accused of killing a Scottish woman whose body was found in a suitcase in Athens be held in jail pending trial, legal and police sources said.
The man, accused of manslaughter, robbery and illegal gun possession, exercised his right to silence and did not respond to the charges, awaiting other evidence, his lawyer said.
The body of Elisabeth Jane Ross, a 38-year-old certified psychotherapist and volunteer aid worker, was found on July 18 in a suitcase on an abandoned construction site after she had been missing for three days.
The suspect, who police officials describe as a professional boxer from Afghanistan who was granted asylum in Greece, was arrested on Sunday.
He denied killing the woman during the initial questioning by detectives, two police officials told Reuters this week.
He told police that he found Ross'body in an apartment bathroom, panicked, placed it in a suitcase and tried to dispose of it, the officials said.
A post-mortem examination could not determine the cause of death due to decomposition but did not rule out asphyxiation, one of the officials said.
The suspect's lawyer Christos Erdas said in a statement that his client exercised his right to silence and requested documents and evidence related to her personal belongings that emerged during the police probe. The coroner's report and toxicological test results have not yet been included in the case file, according to Erdas.
"The examination of the body did not show any injury and an evident cause of death is totally missing," he said.
"His stance before the prosecuting and investigating authorities does not constitute a stance of refusal, but on the contrary, it is a stance of reservation so that he responds comprehensively when the case file is complete," Erdas added.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou, writing by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Edward McAllister, Hugh Lawson and Andrei Khalip)
