Appeal filed in Mellieha murder case

A man who was last month was jailed for 30 years in connection with a murder which took place in 1989 has filed an appeal, claiming he was wrongfully convicted and the penalty imposed was not according to applicable law.

A jury had found George Pace, 55, not guilty of murder but guilty of being an accomplice in the murder of Nazzareno Ebejer in a room at l-Ahrax in Mellieha.

Mr Pace argued in appeal documents filed today that an examination of the evidence clearly showed that there was no common design to commit the murder with Carmelo Sant, the man who actually pulled the trigger and had admitted to the crime.

Neither had it ever resulted that he had provided the shotgun or that he knew that the shotgun was to be used to kill Mr Ebejer.

Mr Pace protested over a section of the concluding address to the jurors by the presiding judge who, he said, had inferred doubt on his testimony.

Furthermore, Mr Pace argued, since the crime was committed in 1989, the law of the time applied, and the maximum sentence after life imprisonment was 20 years, not 30 years.