Two men charged with the murder of a convicted drug dealer and his son were granted bail yesterday, more than a year after being remanded in custody.
Jason Galea, 39, of Birżebbuġa and George Galea, 41, of St Julian’s were granted bail against a deposit of €30,000 and a personal guarantee of €30,000 each.
Jason Galea will, however, not be released from custody because of pending proceedings in connection with a third murder charge, that of 27-year-old taxi driver Matthew Zahra. Ronald Urry, 49, of Paola, also stands accused of murdering Mr Zahra.
All accused are pleading not guilty.
Jason Galea is the brother-in-law and uncle of two of his alleged victims: Mario Camilleri, l-Imnieħru, 51, and his son Mario Jr, 21.
George Galea is Mr Urry’s half-brother.
All three murder victims were found in a Birżebbuġa field where the police found the bodies of the Camilleris and Mr Zahra’s remains.
Field owner Alfredo Attard, who is expected to be charged over his involvement in the murder of the three men, has told the court he was offered money to allow the bodies to be buried.
He said Jason Galea first promised him €2,000 to allow him to use a field next to his farm to kill and bury Mr Zahra and then, a year or so later, he said he was offered €5,000 to bury the Camilleris
Mr Attard testified that he watched Mr Zahra’s murder while standing under a carob tree. Mr Urry, who was crouched behind a wall, shot Mr Zahra. Mr Attard said he later exhumed Mr Zahra’s body, burnt it and kept about four bones to “reveal the wrongdoing”.
Around a year later, for two weeks Jason Galea kept telling him another two murders were imminent and then, one Wednesday, he was told it was the day.
Mr Attard said that he was leaving home when Jason Galea had told him that one body was already in a hole.
About half an hour later, Emanuel Farrugia, known as Leli d-Deffien, turned up at his farm with the younger Camilleri and they went into a small room where George Galea, who was standing behind a curtain, fired a gun at Mr Camilleri but missed. Jason Galea then held his nephew and, together with George Galea, started hitting him very hard.
Jason Galea produced a knife and stabbed his nephew hard, so hard that the knife bent and broke, Mr Attard testified.
The two men also hit the victim with anything they could get hold of, including tiles.
“I heard Mario shouting: ‘no, Jason, leave me. No, Jason, leave me alone”.
In a sitting on Wednesday in the proceedings on Mr Zahra’s murder, lawyer Stefano Filletti, for the victim’s family and his partner, asked for a shoe belonging to Mr Zahra to be returned.
Dr Filletti said the family had not seen him since the day he left and wanted to at least have an item of his to help bring psychological and emotional closure for them.
The cases continue.