ALMOST a year after he was extradited from Britain, a former Teesside pizza bar manager is still being held without charge in a Swiss prison.

Lawyers have filed an application with a judge for the early release from custody of Majid El Hamri who managed a takeaway business at Eaglescliffe.

Hemlington mother-of-two Alison El Hamri has had it confirmed that fingerprint evidence against her husband does not exist - despite earlier Swiss police claims that a thumb print was found on a glass in the flat of a murdered pensioner.

She said: "I just find it hard to believe, I can't understand it. I don't like to believe authorities can be in the wrong, I like to put my faith in them; but I honestly believe there is something not right.

"If they are going to charge him, let them charge him or let him go."

Mr El Hamri did not contest the application for his extradition by the Swiss last February, thinking he would be on a return flight home to Britain in next to no time after the Swiss realised they had got the wrong man. He was cleared of three linked murders of homosexuals in different Swiss cantons, but is being held without charge or trial for a fourth which he strenuously denies.

In a letter to The Northern Echo, French subject Mr El Hamri says: "Now, I don't even know why I'm in prison. I'm innocent; no fingerprint, no witness, no DNA. What is going on?

"How can this country exist in the convention of Europe when they don't even respect the human being."

In his letter, written in his prison cell Mr El Hamri challenges both the Swiss police and the investigating judge to face him in a showdown before the world's Press "anytime, anywhere."

The 20th anniversary of the unsolved murder falls on January 28 this year.

Mr El Hamri's lawyer has warned Alison that he is not very hopeful that the investigating judge, who his client has accused of misconduct, will give Mr El Hamri his application for release.

The lawyer expects to have to put the entire case to a tribunal, held by a superior court.

The British Government has previously said it cannot intervene.