MAASTRICHT - Physical strength is not necessary to strangle someone.The traces of a strangulation are also not always found on or in the body. So said the pathologist of the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) yesterday before the Maastricht court, which closed the investigation into the "murder case-Nijswiller" according to. The court will deliver its verdict July 18. The female suspect in the case, 36-year-old Chinese Ming, committed suicide in prison in January of this year. She initially denied having anything to do with the death of her friend Cha 45. Cha's body was found in a suitcase in a cornfield in Nijswiller in October 2004. There it lay for several weeks. Just before her suicide, Ming suddenly confessed to strangling her friend. However, clear strangulation marks were not found during the autopsy of the body. But, as the pathologist testified yesterday, that does not mean strangulation did not occur. "Violence on the neck," he said. "And you don't have to be strong for that either." The two girlfriends, who were staying in the Netherlands illegally, had an argument over money in late September. The prosecution already asked the court in March to acquit the only remaining suspect, 36-year-old Gang L from China, of murder or manslaughter. Prosecutor C. Ament indeed assumes that Ming killed her friend and that L. had nothing to do with it. He did, however, help Ming make the corpse go away, Ament said. For that, she demanded two years in prison against him. For a moment, the court considered taking Ming's lawyer S. Weening, hostage because he refused to give testimony about things his client had "told" him.

Yesterday the court decided not to do so anyway. When L., who was staying in the Netherlands illegally, has served his possible sentence, he runs a great risk of being deported to China. His lawyer G. van Tilborg will try to put a stop to this, because according to him there is a risk that his client will have to stand trial there again.

The defendant(s) in this case are assisted by: