Court shown security footage of beating outside Zabbar Top Choice

Court shown CCTV footage from private residence in Zabbar showing a man being beaten up by two assailants, before being bundled into a waiting car

A court has been shown CCTV footage from a private residence in Zabbar, which shows a man being beaten up by two assailants, before being bundled into a waiting car, as it continues to hear evidence against the two brothers accused of kidnapping and grievously injuring him.

This was testified to by Police Sergeant Arthur Rizzo, as the compilation of evidence against 27-year old Clayton Azzopardi from St. Paul's Bay and his brother Dylan Azzopardi who is 22 and lives in Marsaskala.

The two men are charged with holding Luke Vella against his will, attacking and injuring him, and the elder brother is also charged with recidivism. It is thought that the attack was related to a sum of money owed to the Azzopardi brothers by a member of Vella’s family.

Vella was allegedly pulled out of his car by the men who then beat him up, bundled into the vehicle, and then thrown out. Vella allegedly suffered grievous injuries in the attack, which took place outside Zabbar shop Top Choice in September this year.

This afternoon, Sgt. Rizzo told Magistrate Aaron Bugeja how he had been stationed at Cospicua police station on the 19th of September this year, when he was called out to deal with a report of a fight in Zabbar.

Rizzo said that upon arrival at the scene, police found nothing, but that police had spoken to one of Top Choice's employees who told them that several men had been involved in an argument involving a group of 3 or 4 men outside their door, and that they had closed the shop as a precaution.

In court today, the employee claimed not to have seen the alleged fisticuffs as he had been seeing to a client at the time. He had heard a car honking its horn and thought nothing of it, but shortly after, a man entered the shop and asked him to call the police. He said he had called the police, after locking the shop door from the inside.

He did not see anything, he said, but had heard banging on the door of the shop’s adjoining garage.

"A search of a car which had been parked near the shop resulted in the discovery of a kitchen knife, two cable ties fashioned into handcuffs, CS gas and black duct tape," said the officer.

An iphone was also recovered from ground near the front wheel of the vehicle and a Samsung mobile phone was found inside the car together with a pair of shoes.

As the shop's security cameras had not captured the event, the police had scrutinized CCTV footage from an adjacent house and had seen Vella running towards Top Choice, being chased by a man.

He is later seen being beaten by two men, who then drag him into a car which drove off towards Paul Scicluna street.

Sgt. Rizzo said he could not possibly identify the men on the tape as the accused, but said that as both the men on the tape and the accused had a pronounced difference in their relative statures, it was “a possibility.”

The case continues in February.