Bona murder: Victim's brother testifies in tense hearing

Tensions were high in the courtroom this morning as Frans Borg, brother of murder victim Antoine “Twanny l-Bona” Borg, was cross-examined before the jury trying Allan Galea, who is accused of Borg’s murder.

Il-Bona, said the witness, “would always be helping people...he donated €500 to Dar tal-Providenza.”

Lawyer Kristina Debattista, prosecuting, asked him why he had not mentioned to the police the fact that his brother had fired warning shots from a pistol, at first. Defence lawyer Giannella De Marco also asked why he had not mentioned the pistol to the police in his first statement. He replied that he had just seen his brother die. “You know what I had just seen. You can’t expect me to remember everything.” 

He could not recall whether or not he had told the police about the weapon or that it had been fired into the air, he said, but protested that he had told the police about the weapon in his second statement.

De Marco asked whether the witness had been drinking at the time. He had.

The men had been talking in the club, he said. “Were you talking about Alan that day?” asked De Marco. He replied that he hadn’t, but the witness eventually conceded that Antoine Borg had wanted Allan’s number “so he can come down and we can square things between us.”

Il-Bona had been "humiliated" by the accused three weeks before

Reminded of the incident that occurred three weeks before the murder, he said his daughter had told him that Galea had yanked the chain around Borg’s neck. “He humiliated him in front of a bar full of people, in my opinion.”

“Did he hurt him?” shot back De Marco.

“Not even when he prodded the baby with his fist did he hurt him, but what does matter?” the witness replied. “Touching babies’ heads- that isn’t how you do things. Teasing people.”

This was in reference to another incident, where the accused had also teased the witness’ baby grandson by putting his fist against the child’s chin remarking, “How strong is he, this little boy?”

The witness became evasive and defensive when confronted with the phrase “Bona Power,” which the deceased was fond of, to the extent of having it tattooed on his forearm.

"Bona power"

“What is Bona power?” asked De Marco. “Did your brother beat people up?” “I never saw him,” said Borg.
“What did your brother do for a living?” asked the lawyer.

“Don’t start bringing up the usury,” the witness growled, “because this has nothing to do with it. Don’t talk to me like this,” shouted Borg aggressively towards De Marco.

“We are not in Bona Power here,” the lawyer coolly reminded the witness.

“Don’t you dare shout at me,” said the witness again, as the prosecution vociferously objected to the defence’s line of questioning, forcing Mr. Justice Mizzi to intervene to calm the situation down.

De Marco objected to the prosecution interrupting her examination at the moment the witness could have revealed something useful. The witness was making his brother out to be “some sort of Robin Hood,” argued the defence, lawyer Joe Giglio point out that a CD played at Antoine Borg's funeral was titled “Bona Power.”

DeMarco pointed out that the “Bona power” issue was very important to the case. “I want to see how far he is willing to go with this act.”

She asked the witness whether his brother was known as “power.” The witness, barely audibly, said he didn’t know. She asked whether a CD had been made for his funeral. There had, he said.  “My brother’s son had made some CDs. I didn’t see them.”
“Did your brother have a car with number plate ‘power’?”  The witness said he didn’t know and had never seen it, so she asked him about a tattoo on his brother’s arm, which read ‘power’.” He said he knew about it.

Asked about his brother’s usury, he replied that this “had nothing to do with the case.” De Marco asked how his brother would get the money he lent back. The witness said he didn’t. “Don’t you know that he would beat people up?”

“Beat them up?” replied Borg. “No. I don’t know, I wasn’t with my brother all the time.”

She reminded him he was under oath, but he repeated his negation. Asked if brother had ever thrown someone into an open grave, or that people had run away from Malta because of his brother, he also replied that he wasn't aware of any of this.

The witness also denied all knowledge of his brother owning a firearm. He was shown a picture of his brother holding a gun. “Is that your brother?” asked De Marco. “Yes, he replied.” “What is he holding in his hand?” she asked. The witness answered inaudibly, seemingly unable to say the words. “Even when faced with evidence, he can’t say it,” said the lawyer.

“Don’t ask me again, Dottoressa,”  said Frans Borg. “I told you twice, three times.”

She then showed the witness a selfie taken by the deceased, showing a tattoo of the word “power.”  He denied his brother had ever caused any trouble.

Had he ever beaten anyone up, asked the lawyer. “I never saw him, if he did,” replied Borg. Neither had he seen Galea tug the baby’s chain, shot back the lawyer.

About the accused’s alleging knife-waving, the lawyer remarked that he, Clifton and Claire Magri had all testified. “Like parrots all after each other, you, Clifton and Claire had only mentioned this waving incident and the calling of names incident in court. Never to the police. As if you were all trying to justify the fact that he had fired shots.”

“I can see it to this very day,” he replied, earnestly.

Giglio passed an inaudible comment to his colleagues. “What’s the matter, Dr. Giglio?” said the witness, before being brought to order by the judge.


The forgotten pistol

De Marco asked about the pistol and why he hadn’t mentioned it in his first statement and about the shots. The lawyer asked how he knew the shots had been fired into the air when his statement read that he had only heard them and then saw Twanny going around a car.

What happened to the weapon? It was given to Paul ‘ix-Xu’ Borg, who used to run the bar at the Marsaxlokk PN club in 2010. “Ah. It disappeared, like the baton used to beat up Allan?”

She moved on to the third statement released by the witness, in which he had explained how he had retrieved the gun from Pawlu x-Xu. Xu initially said he had thrown it into the sea. There was no mention of waving of the knife or insults, highlighted the lawyer.

“The fourth statement. Once again, you didn’t mention the knife-waving or insults or that you heard your brother shooting into the air as you were running after him.”

On the fifth statement, in which the knife-waving and insult incident was mentioned, she pointed out that he had said that he heard two shots but hadn’t seen the gun being fired. How did he know the shots were fired into the air, she asked?

“Didn’t your lawyer give you your previous statements to learn by heart? Only the fifth one?” remarked the lawyer, mischievously.

The witness insisted that he had told it to the inspector. “Oh the inspector should be ashamed of himself,” said De Marco sarcastically. “He was angry because nobody touches the Power’s chain," suggested the lawyer. "How dare he grab Power’s chain?”

The witness argued that the accused had carried a knife, to which the lawyer added, “to protect himself in the case- as actually happened- that the three of you decide to beat him up with a baton.”

Earlier this morning, Borg had said he had gone to the Marsaxlokk PN club, together with his daughter and her son at around 11:30 on the 21 February 2010. They would go to the club every day, he said and that day was not an exception. His brother, Antoine, had joined them at around 2:30pm. “He came to the club at around 2:30pm with Claire Magri. They had just got back together after a long split. He was in a good mood that day.” The witness had been drinking spirits and his brother, beer.

This rosy picture, however, had been interrupted by the accused’s behaviour, said the witness.  Answering questions by the prosecution, he explained that in his eyes, the accused had “humiliated Twanny,” [“waqqgħu għan-nejk”] by tugging on his choker, three weeks before, and had also teased the witness’ baby grandson.

“At around 6 pm he [il-Bona] had his mobile to his ear standing by the van parked outside. I heard him yelling. ‘Come out let’s talk.’”

“Twanny had opened the van and brought something out from the back... he fired two shots into the air, before running off” said the witness, demonstrating the motion. “I chased after Twanny.”

Asked why his brother had fired the shots, he replied that someone had told him there was a man coming for him, armed with a knife. The shots were fired into the air when the accused was around 130 to 140 feet away, after which he had thrown the weapon to the ground, the witness insisted.

“Then, when Twanny threw his weapon away, he went in the direction of Allan... Twanny slipped on the kerb and hit his face on the wall.”

“First he stabbed him in the leg,” said Borg. “I heard my brother shout ‘ahh’ and fell on the floor. Then when he was on the floor, Allan jumped on him and stabbed him in the heart. My brother did not even touch Allan. He came to him empty-handed. I fell to my knees and starting saying ‘Twanny speak to me,’ but he let out a sigh and died.”

Then, [the witness’ son,] Clifton confronted the unrepentant accused who told him that he didn’t care that he had killed Borg.

The witness said he had then laid into the accused, punching him with abandon. “Allan was ferocious. Before I beat him up, Clifton took the knife from his hand and placed it near Twanny’s head.” After the beating, the accused had walked home, said the witness. 

The trial continues tomorrow.

Lawyers Lara Lanfranco and Kristina Debattista from the Attorney General's Office are leading the prosecution, while lawyer Giannella de Marco, Joe Giglio and Steven Tonna Lowell are defence counsel. Lawyers Franco Debono and Matthew Brincat are appearing parte civile for the family of the deceased.

Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi is presiding.