Daren Debono it-Topo to testify in reopened HSBC heist compilation this month

Daren Debono, who was recently jailed for ten and a half years as part of a plea bargain, is set to testify about the 2010 attempted armed robbery of the HSBC headquarters as the compilation of evidence against Vincent Muscat continues later this month.

The robbery was foiled by police officers, but the robbers managed to escape after a shootout in which Debono and Muscat were wounded. Around 65 shots were fired at police officers responding to the bank’s distress signal.

The trial by jury of Muscat, known as il-Kohhu, was supposed to begin last week but had to be adjourned after a surprise last-minute plea deal between the Attorney General and Debono, who is known as it-Topo. Debono had agreed to plead guilty in return for the dropping of attempted murder charges and a ten-year sentence.

News of the plea deal was met with condemnation by the Malta Police Union, who expressed dismay at the fact that the Attorney General had agreed to drop attempted homicide charges against the man accused of attempting to murder a number of police officers. The MPU had memorably invited Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg and her staff to “the next gunfight to feel how death looks like when it is so near” in its official reaction.

As the trial by jury was about to begin, prosecutors had asked the court to include Debono on the list of witnesses for the trial, right after his plea and sentencing. Muscat’s defence lawyers, Franco Debono and Roberto Montalto, strongly opposed this, who insisted that it would be a breach of Muscat’s right to a fair hearing to hear a new witness at the trial stage. The lawyers also argued, amongst other things, that Debono could not testify as he had been interdicted for perjury and fabricating evidence in criminal proceedings about a separate hold up in 2017.

The Criminal Court had subsequently sent the case back to the Court of Magistrates to hear the new witness testify, adjourning the start of the trial until this task was completed.

The re-opened compilation of evidence is now set to begin on 20 January, before magistrate Monica Vella.

Lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo are appearing for Debono.