Family appeals for release of body

The family of the 14-year-old Norwegian girl who died in Malta last month has appealed to the authorities to release the body without further delay.

A spokesman for the Andersen family, Dag Gaassland, told The Times that the family hoped a decision would be taken today or tomorrow to repatriate the body of Marie Line to her homeland.

"It's already taken a long time. This is really upsetting the family," Mr Gaassland said.

The body of the girl cannot be released before the conclusion of the magisterial inquiry, which is expected any day. A separate hospital inquiry has been concluded and the health division said its results would be made public once the magisterial inquiry was over.

Marie Line, who was in Malta studying English, was admitted to hospital on July 29 and died four days later.

The post-mortem concluded that her death was caused by intracranial haemorrhage.

Mr Gaasland said the family and friends of the girl had "completely ruled out" the use of ecstasy.

"People in Norway are shocked and surprised at how a healthy, physically well-trained girl could be admitted to hospital, only to die a few days later," he said.

He said there were still many question marks in connection with the case, especially since a lot of "contradictory statements" had been made.

For example, he said, the hospital authorities had told her parents, who flew to Malta, that their daughter had only regained consciousness for a minute or two after collapsing.

But Health Minister Louis Deguara had said that the girl had been admitted to hospital in a conscious state and it was later that her situation deteriorated.

Mr Gaasland described Marie Line as a very pleasant and popular figure, especially since she formed part of the national athletics team.

He said that the Norwegian Olympic team will be holding a brief remembrance ceremony when the team next convenes on August 31.

In the meantime, sources said the Maltese health system had come under heavy fire in the Norwegian press.

Even the case of the 74-year-old woman, who died at St Luke's Hospital hours after a television set fell on her head, hit the headlines in Norway, even though the autopsy had revealed that she died of natural causes.

The Norwegian press has also picked on the fact that the legal age for drinking in Malta is 16.

"However, they are also implicating that Malta is another Ibiza, and that alcohol and drugs are easily available - which is not the case," the sources said.