{"id":31138,"date":"2026-08-06T07:02:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=31138"},"modified":"2026-08-06T07:02:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:02:52","slug":"afghan-boxer-accused-of-killing-scottish-aid-worker-back-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2026\/08\/06\/afghan-boxer-accused-of-killing-scottish-aid-worker-back-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan boxer accused of killing Scottish aid worker back in court"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Afghan boxer suspected of killing a Scottish woman in Greece has arrived in court in Athens for a second time.<\/b><\/p>\n

Sharif Ahmadzai, who is 26 and from Afghanistan, faces charges of homicide with intent, robbery and weapons offences.<\/p>\n

He is accused of killing aid worker Elisabeth Ross, 38, who was discovered by a homeless man in a derelict building in the Kypseli area of the Greek capital on July 18.<\/p>\n

Ahmadzai arrived back in court in Athens on Thursday morning in an unmarked Grey car. He was not pictured. It is expected he will be formally charged later.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, he was assigned a court-appointed lawyer and given time to prepare his defence.<\/p>\n

Ahmadzai was initially detained on illegal weapons possession charges and is facing a charge of homicide with intent, as well as allegations that he stole more than \u20ac10,000 (\u00a38,500) from the victim’s bank accounts using her bank cards.<\/p>\n

Homicide with intent is equivalent to a murder charge in Scots law.<\/p>\n

A statement from the police’s organised crime directorate said Ahmadzai was brought to a police station on 30 July.<\/p>\n

“In particular, it emerged that the 26-year-old placed the body in a suitcase and transported it to the abandoned site,” the statement said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/span>Elisabeth Ross is believed to have been working with immigrants in Greece (Image: Facebook)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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 <\/p>\n

After allegedly killing Ross, Ahmadzai is accused of sending a series of messages from her phone to her friends and family before switching off the device.<\/p>\n

Greek newspapers Proto Thema and Ta Nea have reported that he bought a phone and texted Ross’s friends in Athens, impersonating an unnamed jihadist saying he had killed the Scot because of her religion.<\/p>\n

The newspapers reported his wife, a US citizen named Alaina Hall, told the police she suspected her husband’s involvement in the killing when she woke up to find he was not in their apartment and tracked his phone to where Ross was staying.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n

Ahmadzai was escorted out of court on Wednesday<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Police said Ross – who is from Edinburgh and is known to family and friends as Lisa – had been volunteering with a refugee support group based in Athens.<\/p>\n

She arrived in Greece on 26 June and stayed in the Keratsini area of Piraeus until 10 July.<\/p>\n

Ross is believed to have died a number of days before she was found.<\/p>\n

After the body was found, Greek officials contacted Interpol and American authorities were able to identify the fingerprints.<\/p>\n

The investigation was carried out by Greece’s Organized Crime Directorate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n

Ahmadzai lived close to where Elisabeth Ross’s body was found<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Afghan boxer suspected of killing a Scottish woman in Greece has arrived in court in Athens for a second time. Sharif Ahmadzai, who is 26 and from Afghanistan, faces charges of homicide with intent, […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,6],"tags":[12015,2992,7887,1185,2657,12816,12813,3479,12814,12812,12815,1077],"class_list":["post-31138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-uk","category-world","tag-afghan-national","tag-afghanistan","tag-athens","tag-edinburgh","tag-greece","tag-greek-organized-crime-directorate","tag-homicide-with-intent","tag-interpol","tag-keratsini","tag-kypseli","tag-piraeus","tag-scotland","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31140,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31138\/revisions\/31140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}