SINGAPORE: Spain’s immigration police have requested that a Singaporean man suspected of killing a compatriot in the country be deported to Singapore, local media reported on Friday (May 2).

Mitchell Ong is suspected of killing Audrey Fong while she was on holiday in Spain. Her body was found with more than 30 stab wounds in April 2024.

The Comisaría General de Extranjería y Fronteras, which is part of the Spanish National Police, requested that Ong be deported from the country as he was there illegally, Spanish media outlet La Verdad reported.

It also asked that he be barred from re-entering the country for 10 years.

The private prosecution representing Ms Fang’s family has agreed with this deportation request, reported Spanish news site La Opinion de Murcia. 

In Spain, victims can hire lawyers to act as private prosecutors and they can bring evidence, request statements or call for charges, among other things. They are separate from the public prosecution.

Ong is currently remanded in Sangonera prison in Murcia, reported La Opinion de Murcia. 

Defence lawyer Maria Jesus Ruiz de Castaneda opposed the deportation request and asked that it be suspended immediately, reported La Opinion de Murcia.  

Ong is involved in active criminal proceedings in Spain, where he must be judged with all due legal guarantees, argued the lawyer, stating that the extradition would represent an unacceptable evasion of the Spanish judicial process.  

She also said Ong's expulsion went against the European Convention on Human Rights.

WHAT HAPPENED

Ms Fang had been travelling alone in Spain when her body was found on Apr 10, 2024, near a parking area for lorries in the town of Abanilla. 

According to local media outlets, a preliminary autopsy report found that knife wounds and head trauma were the cause of her death.

Ong was arrested days later after camera footage showed Ms Fang being picked up from her hotel in a car thought to be driven by him. 

He has yet to make a statement about the case. Both the Spanish public prosecutor's office and the private prosecution have asked that he be charged with murder. 

Ong and Ms Fang had known each other for more than 10 years and he was made a beneficiary of her Central Provident Fund (CPF) - a mandatory social security savings scheme - about six months before her death.