Near-fatal stabbing after an argument on debt costs man lengthy jail term

A man has been handed a prison sentence of 13-and-a-half years for a near-fatal stabbing at the Hal-Far Open Centre in 2016.

Ahmed Omar Aljuweeni, 34, from Libya was found guilty of the attempted murder of a fellow Libyan national, whom he stabbed following an argument over a debt.

The accused had initially claimed that after confronting the victim about the outstanding debt, the victim had pulled out a knife and tried to attack him. The defence then claimed that the accused managed to wrestle the knife from the defendant before stabbing him. 

But Aljuweeni then pleaded guilty before Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera as part of a plea bargain last week.

A joint court application filed by the Attorney General and lawyer Marc Sant had asked the court for a 13-and-a-half year sentence for the Libyan, which the court upheld this morning.

The man was also ordered to pay €4,927 in costs.