An accused murderer has been committed to stand trial over the death of a woman whose body was later found at a rubbish tip.
Prosecutors allege Marat Ganiev, 53, killed 19-year-old Isla Bell in the early hours of October 7, 2024, before hiding her body in a fridge.
Her remains were found at a rubbish tip in Melbourne’s south-east six weeks later.
Ganiev’s barrister Sally Flynn KC argued the prosecution’s case was entirely circumstantial as she pushed for her client to be discharged of murder.
She said the police could not prove the 53-year-old caused Bell’s death and it could not be excluded that Bell died from a drug overdose.
But magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz today ruled there was sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial in the Victorian Supreme Court.
She agreed the case was circumstantial but said it should be left to a jury to decide whether Ganiev was guilty or should be acquitted.
Ganiev was then committed to stand trial after formally pleading not guilty to the murder of Bell.
Mykytowycz also committed his co-accused Eyal Yaffe to trial on the charges of assisting an offender and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Prosecutors claim Yaffe helped move the fridge that contained Bell’s remains after the alleged murder.
The two men will face a pre-trial directions hearing in the Supreme Court on November 18.
