Updated | A&E doctor tells jury how stabbing victim was physically holding in his bowels

A jury has begun to hear evidence in the trial of a Marsa resident charged with the attempted murder of an acquaintance in July 2010.

35 year-old Noel Farrugia, known as il-Giza, stands accused of trying to kill 44-year-old Omar Faiz El Sallak, a Libyan man married to a Maltese woman.

Police Inspector Daniel Zammit told the jury how, on the evening of the attempted murder, he had been informed that a person suffering from a stab wound had been dropped off outside the Emergency Department at hospital by a private car.

When he arrived to begin his investigation, he found el Sallak, a Libyan national who had been living in Malta for some time. “He was on the stretcher with his guts coming out of his abdomen. He was surrounded by several doctors and nurses who were trying to keep them in until he was taken to the operating theatre.”

Although initially reluctant to talk to police, the victim later explained that he had an argument with “Noel Il-Giza” over drugs and a woman and that il-Giza had stabbed him in a flat in Marsa.

Whilst El Sallak was undergoing surgery the police started a manhunt for Farrugia in Marsa, searching door-to-door in an effort to identify the flat where the fight took place.

The police located Farrugia’s flat and found the front door ajar. Upon entry, it was immediately evident to them that the flat had just been hurriedly washed. “We could still see drops of blood on the floor, on the kitchen cupboard and a blood-stained curtain", said Inspector Zammit. 

Farrugia was not there, however. The police had then looked for the suspect in Shooters Bar in Qormi where Farrugia and his girlfriend would often socialise, but did not find them there either. By sheer luck, while the police were standing outside the bar, they saw Farrugia drive past at speed. 

Farrugia was subsequently found in Ponsomby Street, Gzira in the passenger seat of a red BMW being driven by a third party and was arrested. “He admitted to me that he had stabbed El Sallak because he had provoked him,” said the inspector.

Farrugia signed a statment the next day, saying that he was at home with his girlfriend and a certain Paul Zammit when El Sallak made his way into the flat and tried to sell them a Playstation games console. Farrugia refused, and told the police that El Sallak “insisted and produced a knife. We started arguing and I hit him with the knife.”  The knife was never found.

After being stabbed, he claimed that the victim had exited the flat, picked up an axe from his car and proceeded to hit the accused’s parked motorcycle, repeatedly.

Dr. Karl Refalo, who had treated the victim at the emergency department at hospital also testified to the jury. He recalled that El Sallak was admitted with a wound in his lower left abdomen and was holding his bowels in to prevent them from spilling out of the wound.

“This means the wound pierced the skin, muscle and abdominal cavity. The situation required immediate treatment and he was operated on shortly after”. He described El Sallak’s condition as grave, but said that he remembered the victim as being lucid.

The trial will continue tomorrow, with the jury hearing further prosecution witnesses.

Lawyers Kevin Valletta and Vincienne Vella are prosecuting. Lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo are representing Farrugia.