Family still waiting for body of relative

The family of Ishmael Muscat, who was killed in a traffic accident in China last April, are still waiting for the cyclist’s body. Mr Muscat, who would have turned 32 today, was riding his bicycle when he was run over by a car in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, where he lived. Three months on, the family have still not had closure and are waiting for the conclusion of court proceedings that his wife, Xu Mei, initiated against the driver. His aunt, Catherine Sciberras, said that, although the body was ready to be brought to Malta, his wife was unable to give the go ahead for this to happen because doing so would seem to imply that she was accepting the police report attributing half of the blame for the accident to Mr Muscat. This would also mean she and his family would lose all rights to claim damages and, furthermore, the family did not believe he merited half the blame. The police reached such a conclusion despite a statement by the driver that he was not watching the road when the accident happened because he was looking for something in the car, Ms Sciberras said. The driver admitted that he only realised he had run over a person when he got out of the vehicle. However,...