‘Hoe attack’ victim charged over same fight

The alleged victim of an attempted murder was himself charged yesterday with attacking one of his aggressors during the fight which left him with an “irreparably damaged nerve”.

Antoine Saliba, 28, a landlord of Żebbuġ, pleaded not guilty to seriously injuring his former tenant, Joseph Borg, 21, of Siġġiewi, on August 5.

Mr Borg and his friend Silvester Zahra, 23, also of Siġġiewi, have already been arraigned in separate cases and accused of trying to kill Mr Saliba with a hoe and a spirit level during the same incident.

Sources had said the fight followed an argument earlier in the day between Mr Borg and Mr Saliba concerning the rent, after which Mr Zahra asked Mr Zahra to help him move his belongings out of the property. When they went to do it, however, they discovered that the lock had been changed.

Mr Saliba then went on site and a fight broke out, the sources said.

In pleas on bail, defence lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Kathleen Grima said their client had been acting in self-defence when he allegedly attacked Mr Borg.

They said Mr Saliba’s father arrived in the nick of time to save his son from another possibly fatal blow.

Furthermore, in the attack a nerve in his client’s back had been irreparably damaged, leaving him in need of serious medical help and rehabilitation.

If his client were to be remanded in custody, there was nowhere to get adequate treatment, the lawyers said: Mater Dei hospital did not have a ward dedicated to people in custody, the forensic unit at Mount Carmel hospital was not ideal and keeping him in prison was definitely out of the question.

Magistrate Miriam Hayman granted him bail against a personal guarantee of €20,000.