Marsa double murder: Court finds sufficient evidence for indictment

The Court of Magistrates has declared that there is a case to answer with regards Iddirsu Faisal, the man accused of last month’s gruesome double in Marsa.

Faisal, 34, a plasterer from Ghana, is charged with the murders of 73-year-old Joseph Bartolo and 56-year-old Carmen Abela as well as the attempted murder of another woman from Nigeria at a Marsa stables owned by the victims on 15 October.

He is also accused of grievously injuring the same Nigerian woman and slightly injuring another Nigerian man, as well as charges relating to resisting arrest, damaging private property, disobeying lawful police orders and slightly injuring a police officer.

In a decree handed down this morning, Magistrate Gabriella Vella declared that there were sufficient reasons for the man to be indicted.

The court noted that the Nigerian victims assaulted by Faisal had both given similar accounts, with the woman explaining that she had been preparing to brush her teeth when Faisal, who lived in the same complex, had suddenly entered the room and repeatedly hit her in the head with a large set of bolt cutters.

She survived thanks to the intervention of the Nigerian man, who had tried to wrestle the tool out of the assailant's hands. The man told the court that during the struggle, he had seen the bodies of the two victims.

The court sent the acts of the case back to the Attorney General, who must now decide whether to issue a bill of indictment against Faisal or to send the acts back to the court to compile additional evidence.

Lawyers Joe Brincat and Julia Micallef Stafrace are defence counsel to Faisal.

Prosecutors Kaylie Bonett and Ramon Bonett Sladden are representing the Office of the Attorney General, assisting Police Inspectors Kurt Zahra and Wayne Camilleri.

Lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Franco Debono are parte civile.