Third suspect in Sliema double homicide gave no information to the police, court told

A Danish murder suspect, recently extradited to Malta, has not given any information to the police about his part in a double murder in Sliema last August.

The compilation of evidence against the third man suspected of involvement in the double murder of Dr. Christian Pandolfino and Ivor Maciejowski, 30 year-old Jesper Kristiansen from Denmark began this morning before Magistrate Joe Mifsud.

Superintendent James Grech testified as to how he had been informed about the murder on 18 August 2020 at Locker Street in Sliema and how the police investigations had zeroed in on the three suspects using CCTV and other information.

He said that Daniel Muka was arrested on 25 August in Floriana. During his interrogation, Muka had admitted to being present during the murder and had given information about the other two accomplices. Muka claimed that the other two men had fired the lethal gunshots, not him. First to fire had been Jesper Kristiansen, he said, followed by Viktor Dragomanski. But the police investigations had uncovered that the two people inside the house before the shots had been fired were Muka and Kristiansen. Dragomanski was waiting in the car outside.

Superintendent Grech said that Dragomanski had been arrested on 26 August and had told the police that he had been walking his dog when Muka and Kristiansen had stopped their car near him and asked him to join them on a job. He was not told what it involved, he insisted. Investigations showed that Dragomanski had stayed in the car and after shots were fired, was summoned inside by Kristiansen. As they entered the property they found Pandolfino taking his last breaths and Muka on the upper floor.

Grech testified that the police had identified the third suspect as Jesper Kristiansen, a 30 year old Dane, who could not be traced at first. A friend of his had told the police that he was living with his Hungarian girlfriend in Sliema but when the police had gone to speak to her, she said that Kristiansen had left Malta on 28 August on an early morning Ryanair flight. She did not know the destination, she said.

After going over airport CCTV footage, the Maltese authorities issued an arrest warrant.  Jesper Kristiansen was arrested in Spain on 30 August. The Spanish authorities sent copies of his fingerprints to the Maltese police and these were found to match those on the door of the vehicle used in the murder. When Kristiansen was extradited to Malta earlier this month, he had not said a word to the police, Grech explained.

Lawyer Stefano Filletti was defence counsel to Kristiansen.

Superintendent James Grech and Inspector Colin Sheldon prosecuted.