The man accused of murdering a British woman in Athens before leaving her body in a suitcase has been unmasked as an Afghan small boat migrant.
Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, has also been revealed to be a champion boxer – and the co-founder of a refugee charity, according to reports.
Medical evidence from the case file indicates Ms Ross died from asphyxiation.
Ahmadzai is said to have admitted to disposing of her body in a derelict building and sending messages from her phone to make her family believe she was still alive.
A homeless man found Ms Ross’s remains on July 18 after detecting a foul odour from an empty building in Athens’s Kypseli neighbourhood.
CCTV footage released by Greek media appears to show a man fitting Ahmadzai’s description wheeling a suitcase through the city’s streets.
The suspect can be seen dressed in a black T-shirt and shorts with a blue rucksack on his back, calmly wheeling the case through Athens.
When initially questioned by detectives, he claimed he had discovered Ms Ross already dead in her bathroom – before later admitting to using her bank cards and phone.
Ahmadzai became the prime suspect after his American wife, Alaina Hall, alerted police to his suspicious behaviour in the days after Ms Ross’s death, The Times and the Daily Mail reported.
The couple reportedly knew Ms Ross through their NGO, Love Every Nation Athens.
Ms Hall grew suspicious after finding Ahmadzai absent from their home on July 15 and checking his shared location, which showed him at Ms Ross’s flat.
He allegedly tried to give his wife €2,550 (£2,200) in cash and a new Apple iPhone 17 Pro, which she turned over to police, believing they were purchased with Ms Ross’s money.
A police raid on his home on August 1 uncovered a replica pistol and a military-style knife.
Hall came forward with information after Ms Ross was publicly identified on July 30.
Ahmadzai fled Afghanistan at 15 after the Taliban killed his family, arriving on Lesbos by small boat in 2016, according to a blog post he wrote titled “Sharif’s Story”.
His 45-day trek through Pakistan, Iran and Turkey was later made into a short film by a British cartoonist and the International Federation of Red Cross.
In his blog, Ahmadzai wrote: “I lost everything I had. I deserved a better life than this. So many of my dreams were killed.”
He met Hall while she was volunteering at Lesbos’s Moria Camp and converted to Christianity the following year.
They married in April 2023.
Ahmadzai won a national boxing title in March 2026.
Ms Ross, known as Lisa, was regarded as a “good Samaritan” who travelled the world doing faith-driven charitable work, including aiding Syrian refugees in Kurdistan.
He is expected before Athens magistrates’ court on Wednesday.