A man who claims to have been punched by the Labour Party supporter Edwin Bartolo, also known as il-Qaħbu, yesterday confirmed his previous testimony on oath.

Taking the witness stand, Grezzio Bondin said that he was punched by Mr Bartolo outside a polling station in Żejtun on June 6, 2009, during the MEP election campaign.

He said he had suffered slight injuries and had not spoken to Mr Bartolo since the incident, despite previously being very good friends with him.

When asked by Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona if he would forgive him, Mr Bondin said that would be a very hard thing to do.

He quickly added that all he had wanted was to have a peaceful election.

Mr Bartolo also stands charged with Salvatore Mifsud, known as tal-Qattus, of having assaulted Joseph Brownrigg in the same incident.

Following a procedural error, the case had been declared null last year but had been appealed and the case got underway again yesterday.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.