Updated | Romanian guilty of causing man's death, sentenced to seven years

The wife and siblings of Romanian man Antonel Dobre sobbed loudly as he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for causing the death of a Sudanese man in Paceville in 2012.

Earlier today, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty but with extenuating circumstances, after deliberating for seven hours.

The end result of the ten-day long trial was a guilty verdict of 8 to 1 on the charge of grievous bodily harm followed by death, which harm was excusable as it had been provoked by a crime against the person.  A majority of  7 to 2  held that he was also guilty of breaching the peace.

The prosecution claimed the accused hit Saleh in the face knowing that the blow would hurt him. The blow in fact caused him to fall and hit his head. Saleh suffered brain haemorrhage and died three days later. The accused claimed that before the incident, Saleh had elbowed his Romanian friend, Radu Rica, in the nose while they were in a Paceville club.

Dobre, who showed no emotion at the verdict, faced a maximum of 13.2 years imprisonment for the crime.

During submissions on punishment earlier this afternoon, Lawyer Nadia Attard, on behalf of the Attorney General, had asked for a punishment over the minimum, citing the gravity of the outcome. However this requrest had upset defence lawyer Roberto Montalto.

He swore before the court that prior to the case reaching this stage, he had approached the Attorney General himself with a view to varying the indictment to include provocation as an attenuating circumstance.

“The defence has always proposed, after consulting with the accused, that a just and fair punishment would be 4 years imprisonment,” said the lawyer. “The verdict strongly says that had it not been for the provocation, the crime would not have happened and gives partial responsibility to the victim.”

“Four years is a long time to spend in prison for an incident  which the accused had not started,” said Montalto, comparing it unfavourably to previous sentences for homicide, in which firearms had been used, in which a similar punishment had been handed down.

Lawyer Larry Formosa, appearing in parte civile, disagreed, saying that while the defence of provocation does not automatically trigger the minimum punishment, as the court must also assess the level of provocation. “Had there not been an individual who revealed that the accused carried out the killing we would definitely not know to this day. Dobre fled the scene and the country.”

Dobre had said he was sorry, but Formosa told the judge that contrition is demonstrated by facts not words.

 “I hope my colleague was joking when he said that Dobre had fled the scene,” retorted Montalto. “He had used all measures at his disposal to come to Malta to face trial. I take the fact that my client was arrested for in Romania in spite of him having a ticket to Malta already as a personal insult”. He insisted that Dobre had returned to Malta on his own initiative. “He came to face justice and not to escape it.”