Sion Grech murder – suspect offered patrons pills in return for torch

Libyan national Ismael Habesh, 42, who stands charged with the murder of Sion Grech, had offered “pills” to bar patrons in return for a torch or candlesticks.

The compilation of evidence against Habesh and 46-year old Tunisian national Faical Mohouachi continued today, after witness Jason Galea was asked to describe the scene at the Track Bar in Msida, on the night of 25 April 2005.

“I was there drinking with my sister Dorianne and another friend named Stephen Brincat. Habesh, who I know by sight from being near the Detox Centre, entered the bar to buy cigarettes. However he was about 5 cents short and my sister paid for him,” the witness said.

After purchasing cigarettes, the accused, described as looking confused and disoriented, demanded a torch or candlesticks. “He insisted that he needed light but never told us why. He also offered us pills,” Galea said, although he said he did not know what type of pills these were.

The Libyan also asked the three patrons if he could meet them the following day. “He said he would bring a certain ‘Sione’ with him to our place. I told him I was busy but my sister gave him her number. We knew ‘Sione’ as he was our neighbour,” Galea told the court, referring to Sion Grech, the victim.

After that, Habesh left the bar on foot although the witness could not be sure that he did not have a car in the area.

In a previous sitting, Dorianne Galea had explained that she regularly slept rough in the street, and that she was unable to remember details of the past due to her long years of substance abuse. Warned by the court about concealing the truth, she recalled having last seen Sion Grech wearing women’s clothes a couple of metres away from where his body was found, in a field at Albert Town, in Marsa.

She also remembered seeing Ismael Habesh, at the time that she was in the company of her brother Jason Galea and Stephen Brincat at the Track Bar. However in her evidence, she said the bar was in Marsa, and not in Msida as her brother correctly pointed out.