Farmer cleared over shotgun incident

A Mellieha farmer has been cleared of trying to seriously injure his brother-in-law by firing a shotgun in his direction after a magistrate believed that he had fired the shots in the air.

Magistrate Saviour Demicoli cleared Emmanuel Sammut, 47, of trying to injure his wife's brother Joseph Attard in the limits of Mellieha on June 13, 2003, at about 6 a.m.

He was also cleared of possession of the shotgun at the time of the commission of the crime and threatening Mr Attard and Joseph Galea.

Mr Sammut was, however, found guilty of firing the shot within 100 metres of a residential area and was fined Lm150.

During the compilation of evidence Magistrate Demicoli heard Police Inspector Chris Pullicino explain that Mr Sammut had told him that the day before the incident Mr Galea drove a tractor onto his field and Mr Attard was with him. Mr Sammut told the inspector that Mr Galea then drove the tractor in his direction and he managed to avoid being hit by jumping out of the way.

The following day Mr Sammut went to his field with his wife and took his shotgun with him.

While he was picking figs, Mr Attard and Mr Galea entered his field again and his wife got scared and ran into his van. So Mr Sammut fired two shots in the air to scare them off, then he got into his van and drove off.

On evaluating the case the magistrate was faced with two conflicting versions of events. Mr Attard claimed that on the day of the incident Mr Sammut chased him with his shotgun and fired it in his direction.

But Mr Sammut denied aiming the gun at his brother-in-law and insisted that he fired the shots in the air.

The magistrate ruled that Mr Sammut's version was more plausible and cleared him of most charges, finding him guilty of firing the shots close to an inhabited area.