The Victorian police have charged a 20-year-old man with the murder of Palestinian student Aiia Maasarwe.

Codey Herrmann, of Greensborough, briefly faced Melbourne magistrates court on Saturday where he made no application for bail. He has been remanded in custody to appear in the same court on Monday.

Maasarwe, a 21-year-old an Israeli national from the predominantly Arab city of Baqa al-Gharbiyye had been in Melbourne for six months, and was attacked just after midnight on Tuesday, Victorian police believe. She had boarded the No86 tram home to her apartment near Latrobe University in Bundoora after attending a gig at the Comics Lounge in North Melbourne.

She was on a video call to her sister when she was attacked, and her body was found by tradesmen about 50 metres from a tram stop on the corner of Plenty Road and Main Drive.

Herrmann is alleged to have assaulted and killed her at the same location, the court was told on Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday prime minister Scott Morrison and his family visited the Melbourne memorial where the student’s body was found.

“Later today I’m going to be meeting with her father; words will fail me, I’m sure, as one father to another,” he told reporters. “I think the country is very shaken by it but at the same time, as always, reaches out and seeks to comfort.”