Immigrant died from drowning – autopsy

The immigrant from Chad whose corpse was recovered from St George’s Bay on Sunday died from drowning, an autopsy established yesterday.

The outcome of the autopsy confirms the theory on which the police are basing their investigations: that the immigrant, 36-year-old Hasan Matar Khamis, was pushed into the sea by his friends as a joke. It also excludes the possibility he was murdered before being thrown in.

The Criminal Investigations Department is trying to establish the man’s last movements and the identities of the friends he was with before he died. Sources said no arrests had been made.

Eyewitnesses saw the man with a group of friends on the rocks beneath Corinthia Marina Hotel in St Julians at about 7.30 a.m. About 10 minutes later, Mr Kamis was apparently pushed into the water as a joke and the group of four who were with him walked away, police sources said. His body was recovered some time later.