A last-ditch offer by a lawyer to represent a rape suspect who found himself without legal counsel has been rejected.
Lawyer Roberto Montalto yesterday morning asked Judge Michael Mallia’s deputy registrar if he could appear for Somali immigrant Omar Osman, who stands charged with complicity in rape.
Mr Osman ended up without representation just before the start of a trial by jury earlier this week.
Dr Montalto had been consulting Mr Omar with a view to taking over the case. He told the deputy registrar he would need a postponement to be able to prepare for the trial, particularly because the case was complex and the file very convoluted.
However, the reply he got was that the trial was due to start.
Instead, Mr Osman has been assigned legal aid lawyer Malcolm Mifsud, who himself has had no time to prepare for the trial which went ahead as scheduled yesterday.
Mr Justice Mallia also ruled that the case would be heard behind closed doors.
Mr Osman ended up without a lawyer after his former defence counsel Franco Debono formally relinquished on Friday afternoon. Dr Debono had notified his client almost a month ago but the latter did not manage to secure a replacement in time.
Lawyer Joe Brincat also renounced legal counsel on behalf of another defendant in the case on Monday, saying he had only found out about the trial “by chance” on Friday.
The twist is the latest in a saga spanning more than five years and which has seen Somalis Muhammad Ali Hasan, 31, and Abubaker Abdilrahman, 22, and Anwar Otman Hasan, 31, from Sudan, along with Mr Osman, languish in prison without having been convicted.
Three of the men are charged with different counts of rape and assault in the alleged gang rape of a Maltese woman at the Marsa Open Centre in March 2007.
The prosecution is seeking a jail term of between four and 12 years. Mr Osman, however, has rejected repeated suggestions by his lawyers to plead guilty and effectively walk free, seeing as he would have already served his sentence.
During the compilation of evidence it emerged that he had told the police he was prepared to give blood and semen samples to prove his innocence.
The samples were taken and in fact proved negative, while semen of two of the co-accused was found on the victim.
The only evidence that ever connected Mr Osman to the case was the testimony of the victim’s friend, Hakim Babangita from Togo, who said that at one point he had seen him carry the woman.
Mr Babangita had invited the victim to sleep in his dorm bed at the Marsa Open Centre that night because she got drunk at the nearby Tiger Bar, and had attracted the attention of several men there.
Once in the dorm, Mr Babangita told the court, the situation turned ugly and a group of three men approached her with the clear intention of taking advantage of her sexually.
The story as told by the victim – who acknowledged she was severely drunk throughout the ordeal – loosely corroborated that of her friend but none of them placed Mr Osman at the scene of the rape.
On the contrary, when asked in court, Mr Babangita specifically excluded Mr Omar from the scene of the rape.