The remains of Lassana Cisse have been repatriated to Ivory Coast, more than three years since the father-of-two was killed in cold blood.

A family funeral will be held on Saturday. A memorial was held in Malta last month at the Paola mosque.

Human rights activist Maria Pisani accompanied the remains to the Ivory Coast together with a Foreign Affairs Ministry official.

On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Ian Borg tweeted: "I reiterate the government’s commitment to ensure communities are safe spaces for all. We continue to stand in solidarity with Mr Cisse’s family and loved ones."

Lassana, 42, was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Ħal Far as he walked home on April 6, 2019. Two soldiers – Francesco Fenech and Lorin Scicluna – have been accused of his murder as well as the attempted murder of another two men and a hit-and-run incident that was exposed by Times of Malta.

All four victims were black.

The murder is believed to have been racially motivated. 

Fenech and Scicluna have been granted bail, a decision that instilled fear, humiliation and disappointment among black people and the migrant community. 

Cisse’s body was released for burial nine months after his murder, leaving his relatives in Ivory Coast and friends in Malta baffled as to why the corpse was kept at the mortuary for such a long time.

By March 2020, the government had committed itself to covering all repatriation costs, including transport to the burial place, permits and mortuary fees. But then COVID struck and ports were closed because of surging virus cases.

Last year, Cisse’s cousin, Abdoulaye told Times of Malta that a sense of “fatigue” had blanketed the family since the murder.

His cousin had been “killed in the street like an animal” and Cisse’s mother, for whom the murdered man was an only child, just kept asking when she was going to see his body.