Body may be 'drowned' migrant

The body of an Asian man recovered from the sea on Sunday could well be one of the three Chinese or Mongolians who went missing after allegedly being forced off a boat at gunpoint in the Malta-Sicily strait on Maundy Thursday, sources told The Times.

The Italian police had recovered six bodies from the sea and another six migrants were saved in that Holy Week tragedy, yet another involving the deaths of illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean.

There are strong suspicions that the boat they were in had left from Malta and the police are investigating. The corpse found on Sunday was picked up off the coast of Gozo some eight nautical miles north-west of San Dimitri point by the crew of a passing tanker, the MT Katherine Knusten.

The ship's captain informed the armed forces about the gruesome find and because of the rough sea the vessel was directed to the south of Malta where the corpse was transferred to a search and rescue boat. It was brought ashore at about 9 p.m.

Sources said an autopsy carried out yesterday established that the person was male. The body bore no signs of violence and no bones appeared to be broken but it would be difficult to tell if he had been beaten up because of the state of decomposition of the corpse, the sources added.

More tests will be carried out in a bid to establish his age and identity.

The sources said the man appeared to be in his 30s and had been dead for about a week-and-a-half or two. This, coupled with the fact that he was found wearing a life jacket, makes it possible he was one of the missing Chinese or Mongolian immigrants.

Police sources said one of the dead Chinese recovered by the Italian police was also wearing a life jacket and enquiries will be made to see if the make is similar. The police are also trying to find out if the particular brand he was wearing was available locally.

"It is known that immigrants sometimes buy life jackets before embarking on such trips. If it results that the life jacket was bought locally, it will be an important facet of the investigations," the sources said.

The ill-fated trip is being probed by the police in both Italy and Malta. Local police have homed in on two persons in connection with the case and have seized their boat, on which forensic tests have been carried out.

Other individuals known to have a link with illegal immigration are expected to be charged shortly in connection with other trips that did not end up so tragically.

Another body, also of an Asian, was washed ashore on a small pebble beach between Ghajn Barrani, limits of Ramla, and Ghar Qawqla, Marsalforn, on Friday afternoon.

The autopsy determined that the body, that of a woman, had been in the water for a few days. This, coupled with the fact that the missing Asians were male, have led investigators to exclude the woman from being part of the Maundy Thursday group.