Husband held as wife vanishes

ROME: A German man jailed in Italy after his wife disappeared during a Mediterranean cruise may face murder charges.

His lawyer, Luigi Conti, dismissed media reports that investigators believe the man murdered his Chinese wife, then stuffed her into a suitcase and tossed her overboard as “journalistic hypothesising”.

The suspect, who has not been named, was jailed in Rome in February as he attempted to leave the country with the couple’s two small children for Ireland, where they live.

The husband has claimed his wife walked off the MSC Magnifica ship in Greece, having grown bored with the cruise, and that he was not alarmed because she had behaved similarly in the past.

Asked why his client had not reported his wife missing, Conti replied: “He didn’t have time – he would have if he hadn’t found her at home in Ireland. We want authorities to look for a missing person, not just a body.” There had been no sign

the woman since the of 10-day cruise ended at Italy’s Civitavecchia port city, he said.

The children are in the care of social services in Rome, and “efforts are ongoing to locate relatives that could take them”. They might be entrusted to the suspect’s sister.

The lawyer confirmed that the suspect’s mother-inlaw had visited him in prison and that she had given him 70 (R942), the daily maximum allowed to detainees.

He was due to appear before a preliminary investigations judge yesterday. – dpa