Four years since tragic death, accused still fighting appeal on bill of indictment

The Lisa Maria Foundation has marked the fourth anniversary of the death of the young student Lisa Maria Zahra, as the prosecution of the former teacher accused of her assisted suicide, continues.

The homicide case against the former drama teacher, Erin Tanti, has yet to reach jury stage as his defence lawyers fight an appeal against a decision to overrule their objections to his Bill of indictment.

Four years ago, Tanti was charged with the wilful homicide and with assisting the suicide of 15-year-old Lisa Marie Zahra, after the two were found at the bottom of Dingli cliffs on 19 March 2014. He is also accused of defiling her when she was still underage, at a time when he was also her teacher.

The former teacher, 27, has been out on bail on a hefty €20,000 deposit and a personal guarantee of €50,000, since 2015. He has since pursued a career in real estate and was recently involved in the catering and events industry.

After a relatively quick compilation of evidence, the Attorney General’s office had issued a Bill of indictment against Tanti in April 2014. The law allows a person accused to object to aspects of the Bill of indictment, which is precisely what Tanti did. The objection was rejected by the courts, however, and this decision is now subject to an appeal by Tanti’s defence team.

In his appeal, Tanti protested that the charges were inaccurate and “excessively dramatic”.

On the night of the tragic death, Tanti and Zahra had driven up to Dingli cliffs, after running away from Zahra’s family home where the two had spent the night, and over the course of the night planned to kill themselves.

Tanti’s defence has argued that toxicology results proved that Zahra had not consumed alcohol, contrary to what had been alleged, and that the Attorney General could not accuse him both of murder and with assisting a suicide, as the charges were alternative to each other.

Tanti also requested the cancellation of the charge relating to the possession of indecent photographs of a minor, as the photos in question had been found in Zahra’s mobile. He also demanded the removal of all of photographs of the victim from the indictment.

In July 2017, presiding Judge Antonio Mizzi upheld a request by the defence to remove any reference that Zahra had consumed alcohol from the indictment, after toxicological tests returned negative for the substance, but turned down all of the other pleas and reiterated that the two counts of murder and assisting suicide were not alternative to one another.

Zahra’s cousin, the hotel entrepreneur Winston Zahra, declined to comment on the case.

He preferred to highlight the work undertaken by the Lisa Maria Foundation, which was set up after her death.

“Over the past three years, the foundation has undertaken a number of initiatives to safeguard Malta’s youth, including work with the Ministry of Education so as to strengthen legislation with regards to people who have a duty of care towards children.”

The Foundation has also been active in creating and supporting a number of events in the areas of education, culture and sport. Zahra said these events have all been designed to provide “healthy alternative and informative activities for youths” – one of these being the Foundation’s collaboration with St Patrick’s Athletics Club with the sponsorship of the Lisa Maria Memorial Dingli Ten, a 10-mile run which has been organised for the past 28 years.

“The fact that the run takes place on the anniversary of Lisa Maria’s tragic death and that it is an activity which encourages youth to keep fit and healthy through sport made this event an ideal way to commemorate and celebrate Lisa Maria’s life every year,” the father said.