An engineering student accused of decapitating a person he just met has been pictured for the primary time.
Jonathan Uno, 29, from Nigeria, has been living in Lisbon for several months, claiming to check for a PhD on the University of Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Tecnico.
He’s suspected of being behind the brutal murder of Mussa Balde, 34, originally from Guinea-Bissau.
News of the killing first emerged last Wednesday when cops confirmed a headless body had been found next to central Rossio Railway Station behind the Portuguese capital’s Coliseum of Lisbon concert hall.
A day later, Uno was arrested after walking into town’s Sao Jose Hospital together with his alleged victim’s head wrapped in foil inside a rucksack.
Investigators say they’re still trying to determine a motive for the gruesome murder.
Overnight, police sources said the decapitated head had been washed before being handed in and said they imagine it could have been kept in a fridge or freezer for greater than 24 hours due to state it was in, despite the extreme summer heat.
One Policia Judiciaria officer told Portuguese each day title Correio da Manha: ‘The dead man’s head had been treated impeccably. It was clean and you could possibly clearly see it had been washed and well taken care of.’
One other well-placed source said: ‘It’s all still very difficult to clarify, but it surely might be right down to a cultural query of respect for the victim.’
Investigators have ruled out the likelihood that the killing was motivated by drugs and have described the suspect as having an ‘apparently stable’ life within the Portuguese capital.
The police force, in its only official statement to date, confirmed: ‘We have now arrested a 29-year-old foreign national strongly suspected of committing the crimes of aggravated murder, desecration of a corpse, and possession of a prohibited weapon in Lisbon on the night of July 29-30.
‘The victim was identified on the identical day as a 34-year-old foreign citizen with legal status within the country.
‘On the afternoon of July 31, the suspect voluntarily presented himself at a hospital in Lisbon, carrying a human head that he said he wanted at hand over.’
Portuguese prosecutors said an autopsy performed on the victim’s body showed he had multiple defensive wounds where his attacker had made repeated attempts to stab him.
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