Stabbing victim says he still cannot understand why he was attacked

A Libyan man told jurors this evening that he was still at a loss on what got into his friend who stabbed him four years ago.

Omar Faiz El Sallak said he was sharing cocaine with his "friend" Noel Farrugia when he all of a sudden felt something pricking him and started losing a lot of blood. He added that Mr Farrugia pushed him down the stairs and told him; "Allah hu akbar".

Mr el Sallak was testifying during the trial by jury of Mr Farrugia, 35, from Marsa, who is accused of attempting to murder him on July 22, 2010.

He said that after he was stabbed and was holding his abdomen to keep his intestines inside, he went to his car, grabbed an axe and smashed Mr Farrugia's motorcycle.

This version of events was, however, described as a lie by a defence lawyers, who said it was incredulous how a man who was losing blood and had his intestines coming out of a gaping hole in his stomach had the energy to smash a motorcycle with an axe.

Asked what could have triggered the attack, El Sallak insisted that he is, up to this day, at odds as to why his “friend” had stabbed him.

“We were friends and we used to even sleep at each other’s house. We were not involved in any argument. I do not know what got into him,” he said.

As he rebutted the defence lawyer's claims that his testimony was “a complete lie from the beginning,” Mr el Sallak said the attack, which he described as "nonsensical", left him weak. He added that four years since the attack, he would “rather be dead than alive.”

He explained that on the day in question, he was at the Marsa flat together with Mr Farrugia and his partner, Miriam Azzopardi, their 18 month old daughter and another friend, Paul Zammit.

“We had about ten grams of cocaine. Noel was cooking cocaine, while we were sitting around the kitchen table. After a while I said I was going home and walked to the front door. When I got there I felt a prick and when I turned around, Noel told me: 'Allah hu akbar' and pushed me down the stairs," he said.

Cross examined by the defence, which insisted his version was "one big lie", Mr el Sallak said he could not explain how he found the energy to destroy the motorcycle before Mr Zammit drove him to hospital.

Ms Azzopardi, the mother of Mr Farrugia's child, told jurors that she ran into the bedroom when the commotion began but admitted that Mr Farrugia had told her he had stabbed Mr el Sallak.

Earlier in today's sitting, jurors heard scene of crime officers explain how the flat there the stabbing took place had been washed up and smelt of detergent when the police arrived.

Patrick Farrugia and Jeffrey Hughes, from the National Laboratory, said that since the place had been washed, they used a special chemical to establish whether there were traces of blood. Luminol, they said, is used in circumstances when time would have passed. As soon as it touches haemoglobin, it turns fluorescent blue. They found many traces of blood.

The trial by jury continues tomorrow when the defence will make its submissions to the jurors in an attempt to convince them that their client was defending himself and his family.

Lawyers Kevin Valletta and Vincienne Vella from the Attorney General's office are prosecuting while lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo appeared for the accused.

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