Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/794736
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 5 MARCH 2017 3 JURGEN BALZAN THE government has yet to ex- plain why the body of Frederick Ofosu has not been released af- ter the Ghanaian asylum seeker committed suicide more than two weeks ago. Questions sent to the ministry for home affairs about the delay in the release of the body were sent earlier this week and a spokes- person said that the answers were given by minister Carmelo Abela at a press conference given three days after Ofosu's death. During the press conference, the minister confirmed that Ofosu was denied temporary protection three times and his repatriation to Ghana was delayed by an unpaid court fine. Upon being faced with the in- congruity of the answer, the spokesperson referred the ques- tions to the police. The questions remained unanswered by the time of going to print. MaltaToday is informed that the police are claiming that they have not established with certainty the identity of Ofosu. The delay is being seen by some quarters of the refugee commu- nity as a tactic to quell the anger which the suicide generated, given that Ofosu was refused protection several times. Frederick Ofosu was found strangled with an electric cable in a Qawra building site on Saturday, 18 February and left a recorded message explaining why he killed himself. Abela had gone on to shed doubt on the existence of the recording. Ofosu apparently said he was being made to feel like a criminal, when he had done nothing wrong. In a press conference given three days later, home affairs minister Carmelo Abela said the Ghana- ian had been refused THPn status three times, and that in Septem- ber 2016 he had applied for assist- ed voluntary return: a programme that grants returning migrants a financial support package. But the process had to be halted, due to pending fines he had yet to pay on a 2016 court case. In July 2016, Ofosu was accused of damaging his rented apartment in St Paul's Bay. But in the pro- ceedings, Ofosu said that his at- tempts to go back to Ghana were being hampered by excessive bu- reaucracy and told the court that he intentionally smashed the fur- niture of his rented apartment in a desperate cry for attention to his plight. Ofosu came to Malta to flee ex- treme poverty and worked for a number of years, but after he lost his job he was faced with a num- ber of demands from the authori- ties, including documentation he could not provide. He was handed a suspended one-year prison sentence and or- dered to pay an €800 fine. He was also ordered to pay the landlord €2,115. MIRIAM DALLI INVESTIGATORS are following the lead that David Abela's mur- derer could be a Russian national, MaltaToday has learnt. Officers investigating the cold- blooded murder of the Swieqi businessman, 51, believe that the key to the mystery lies in his pri- vate life, having excluded any connection to business links and the possibility of a burglary gone wrong. More specifically, the investiga- tors are following the lead that Ab- ela was killed because of personal troubles – which would also in- clude his 29-year-old Russian part- ner, Irina Alexandrovna Micallef. Sources have described the rela- tionship between the two as hav- ing been "turbulent" of late. According to multiple media reports, the couple had even filed police reports against each other. The woman had recently filed a re- port over domestic violence. The woman, who has a son with Abela, walked into the macabre scene in their home in Triq il-Gizi, where she discovered her partner dead last Monday. He had been stripped naked and was bound and gagged. An autopsy showed that Abela died of asphyxia by suffocation, as he had his mouth taped with duct tape. He was also stabbed six times to his neck and torso. Alexandrovna Micallef has been questioned multiple times by the police since her arrival from Dubai. Likewise, investigators have spo- ken to Abela's relatives, friends and colleagues with the hope that some new information could emerge on what could have happened in the early hours of Monday morning. CCTV footage from the Swieqi residence suggests that the mur- derer was waiting for Abela to return home after a person was caught on camera breaking in. The body was found on Monday after- noon at five – upon Alexandrovna Micallef's return from the airport – but experts believe he had been dead for some 12 hours. His BMW was found parked in Pembroke next to the reverse os- mosis plant, giving rise to ques- tions on how Abela arrived home. The police had initially said that there had been no sign of forced entry, suggesting that the victim knew his killer. The police were al- so considering the possibility that they should be looking at more than one suspect. News Government mum on refusal to release body of Frederick Ofosu Swieqi murder: Police follow Russian lead David Abela and his partner Irina Alexandrovna Micallef Frederick Ofosu