Two bouncers fined €100 each after pleading guilty to New Year’s Day Paceville attack

Three more nightclub bouncers have been charged in connection with the New Year’s Day fracas in Paceville which left a man grievously injured.

In a Sliema district sitting before Magistrate Ian Farrugia on Thursday, Inspector Brian Xuereb arraigned Serbian nationals Ivan Marjanovic, 46, and Aleksandar Kovacic, 28, who both pleaded guilty to assault and breaching the peace and were fined €100 apiece. The third man arraigned, Petar Bajic, 36, also from Serbia, pleaded not guilty.

Thursday’s arraignments now bring the number of people charged over the brutal assault to five. 29-year-old Ryan Zammit, and Albanian doorman Riald Gragjevi, also 29, have already been charged with grievous bodily harm and remanded in custody.

The man seen being assaulted in the video, Ahmed Adam Idriss Albarjo, 30, from Sudan, was also subsequently charged with slight bodily harm on January 6, in connection with the incident, and had been remanded in custody. He was present in the courtroom today, flanked by two prison guards.

Albarjo informed the court that he was renouncing his right to criminal action to the extent permitted by law. The accused men pleaded guilty to the charges relating to assault and apologised to the injured party, who accepted the apology.

In view of the declaration, the prosecution declared it had no further evidence to produce.

Bajic was also charged with illegally acting as a private guard and without the required licence, uttering insults and threats and disturbing the peace by shouting and fighting. He pleaded not guilty. The case against Bajic was adjourned to May.

Minutes after the arraignment, the compilation of evidence against the men already charged in connection with the beating, Rialj Gragjevic and Ryan Zammit, continued before Magistrate Nadine Lia.

Kovacic took the witness stand in that case, telling the court that he worked as a security guard. Asked about the incident, he said “I think its best that you get my lawyer to speak about the case.”

Inspector Brian Xuereb interjected, pointing out that Kovacic had just been convicted and fined, and could therefore testify freely, because he was not facing any further investigations or legal proceedings over the incident.

Prosecutor Etienne Savona, representing the Attorney General’s Office together with fellow prosecutor Giuliana Magro Conti, asked Kovacic about his involvement in the incident and what he remembered to have happened.

“I was involved in this incident when it was happening. I just went back to my club afterwards. The incident was happening outside the club. I took part. I intervened in this incident and then I returned to my club.” He said the club in question was Havana.

Kovacic said that he was only involved at the very beginning of the incident, he said. “I intervened because my colleagues were attacked,” he said, adding that he hadn’t seen anything after returning to his post inside the club.

Savona asked what had led to the incident. “The black man attacked a guy with a bottle and he kept hitting him with the broken bottle and pierced his shoulder with it…The Albanian guy, Riald, was attacked with a broken bottle… I didn’t see all the details, I saw the beginning of a brawl and I just jumped in to help my colleagues.”

He said he had returned to his duties in the club after seeing that “four or five” of his colleagues were already assisting Riald.

Inspector Xuereb asked how many people had been attacked. Waving his arms about agitatedly Kovacic said “the black man was threatening to kill us all and shouting. Then he attacked Riald, the Albanian guy. As far as I could see, Riald was the first person to be attacked, but I could not see precisely due to the amount of people involved.”

“The black man went to talk to the police and he started recording everything, then he came back. After that, I don’t know. I only heard ‘outside’ ‘outside’ through my earphones…The security guards on the door were telling me to go outside. There were big problems outside because of the black guy… When I went outside, I saw him start running and I chased him. The security officers managed to catch him and the rest is captured on video.”

The recipient of the beating, Albarjo, took the stand next. The prosecution told Magistrate Lia that the man should testify under caution, as he was also facing charges relating to the incident. The court explained to the witness that it was important that he understood that whatever he said today could be used against him in the proceedings where he was a defendant. This meant that he had a legal right not to testify.

Albarjo asked to be allowed to consult with his lawyer, Roberta Bonello Felice, and was allowed to do so.

When he returned to the courtroom, he said in English, “I want to forget. I don’t want to give evidence.”

Petar Bajic, the security guard who had pleaded not guilty earlier this morning, was called to the stand next, but also declined to testify due to the ongoing proceedings against him.

Bajic’s lawyers Shazoo Ghaznavi and Jessica Formosa explained that because of this morning’s developments, where he was charged with acting as bouncer without a licence, he would prefer to give evidence at a later stage, after the proceedings against him were concluded.

Inspector Xuereb was asked to testify, but lawyer Herman Mula, defence counsel to Gragjevic and Zammit, pointed out that the Inspector could not testify without making reference to CCTV footage which had not yet been exhibited.

The case was adjourned to next week.