A MAN being held on suspicion of murder in a Swiss jail has made a second attempt to kill himself.

Majid El Hamri's wife, Alison, is leaving her Teesside home, and the couple's six-year-old twins with relatives, to fly to Berne to be with her husband.

He was arrested at the couple's house in Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough, in February and extradited to Switzerland, where he has been held without charge or trial on suspicion of the murder of an elderly homosexual in the 1980s.

Mr El Hamri , who worked in a pizza shop in Eaglescliffe, tried to cut his wrists in March after his hopes of being released from jail were thwarted.

An official from the British Embassy told Mrs El Hamri then her husband's mental state was deteriorating.

She has learned that her husband has made a second suicide attempt, again using razors.

Mrs El Hamri said: "They (authorities) did not inform me. My letters stopped and I did not receive any for two weeks.

"What frightens me is it is a cry for help. I just don't know what I am going to find over there. He should not have had access to these things, not after the first time he tried to cut his wrists.''

Mr El Hamri claims not to have seen the lawyer appointed to him by the state since April, while attempts to engage a legal advisor of his own have been refused.

Mrs El Hamri says the Fair Trials Abroad organisation has told her that is a violation of his human rights.