Matthew Zahra, who went missing in 2012 and whose remains were found buried in a field in Birzebbuga a year later, has not yet been declared dead and his remains are still in possession of the courts.

Lawyer Stefano Filletti, who is appearing parte civile for the family in the compilation of evidence against Jason Galea, 39, of Marsa and Ronald Urry, 49, of Paola, asked the court to release Mr Zahra’s remains to the family so that they could give him a proper burial.

Mr Galea and Mr Urry are pleading not guilty to the murder of the 27-year-old taxi-driver in August 2012.

Dr Filletti told the court that the problem was that Mr Zahra’s cause of death still had to be determined.

“It is however important to have a death certificate because of inheritance issues. Tests revealed that the remains are of Mr Zahra, so we have a situation where the state started proceedings against two people for his murder but a death certificate has not yet been issued,” Dr Filletti told the court.

The court ordered this request to be communicated to the Attorney General.

Meanwhile, court expert Mario Scerri and the director of the Public Registry are to be called in during the next hearing to guide the court on the procedure of the issuing of the death certificate.

At the end of today’s hearing, the court fined Mr Galea €100 for contempt of court for failing to turn up, and also ordered his arrest.

The prosecution is being led by Police Inspectors Fabian Fleri and Chris Pullicino.

Franco Debono and Joe Giglio are appearing for the accused.

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.