A Libyan man who stands charged with the attempted murder of a fellow countryman told a court he had no idea how the knife the other man was waving in his direction ended up piercing the man's own leg.
Zouhir Elfezqa was testifying this morning about a Swieqi stabbing incident which occurred on January 30.
Mr Elfezqa stands charged with attempted murder and with inflicting grievous injuries to Wadea Al Maghrbi.
Mr Maghrbi, on the other hand, stands charged with attempting to cause Mr Elfezqa grievous bodily harm and causing him slight injuries with a pointed weapon.
A third Libyan national, Abdul Hafid Abukem, is accused of attempting to inflict grievous injuries to Mr Elfezqa and slightly injuring him.
Mr Elfezqa testified that he was asleep in his bedroom at around 7.30am while his flatmate, Mohammed Hafed al-Arara, was asleep on the sofa.
He was awoken by a blow to the head with a metal rod, which was being wielded by Mr Al Maghrbi, who proceeded to grab the witness from his top and drag him out of the bedroom and into the sitting room.
The witness told Magistrate Josette Demicoli that Mr Al Maghrbi's motive seemed to be an alleged kidnapping incident back in Libya.
"Wadea said: 'your people took my brother. Back in Libya, they caused problems'. I don't even know his brother and I’ve never had any problems with Wadea,” the witness insisted.
He said that he was struck on the chin with the metal rod before Mr Al Maghrbi produced a knife and the two wrestled each other for the knife before falling on top of each other.
“I was trying to hold on to the knife because I wanted to protect myself. I thought I was about to die because I had been struck in the head and chin and he was drunk.”
In the meantime, the witness continued, his flatmate Mr al-Arara was holding on to Mr Abukem who was about to join the fray, who claimed that Mr Elfezqa’s faction had kidnapped his sisters in Libya.
Mr Elfezqa said he was injured in the leg with the knife. After falling on top of Mr Al Maghrbi, Mr Elfezqa spotted blood. He pushed Mr Al Maghrbi towards the balcony and ran out of the flat. Mr al-Arar had already left the flat and was headed towards the police station. The knife, he claimed, was in Mr Al Maghrbi’s hand.
Asked how Mr Al Maghrbi ended up with a deep stab wound in his left thigh, from which he nearly bled to death, the witness said he “didn’t know”.
He insisted that he never had any problems with Mr Maghrbi and Mr Abukem - he would often eat with the former while the latter had spent a week at living at his flat after experiencing problems with his own apartment.
The police had then taken him to hospital where his chin was stitched closed and he was also given an injection.
The case continues.
Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi, Martin Fenech, Giannella de Marco and Gianluca Caruana Curran are appearing for the accused. Police inspectors James Grech and Elton Taliana are prosecuting.