A Libyan man accused of murdering his wife was yesterday faced with DNA evidence placing him at the scene of the crime.
Police Inspector Keith Arnaud told the court that a lot of evidence bearing the DNA of 34-year-old Nizar El Gadi was found under his victim’s fingernails. The police also found a tissue on the back seat of her car, which also had Mr El Gadi’s DNA, along with traces of her blood and lipstick.
Mr Arnaud said it had been established that 31-year-old lawyer Margaret Mifsud died of asphyxia but left it to the court experts, expected to testify on September 20, to explain how.
Dr Mifsud, who had to two daughters with the accused, had been found dead in her Mitsubishi Sirion on April 19 after spending the previous evening with friends at a restaurant in Xemxija.
No external signs of violence on the body were found, except for dried blood, which had oozed out of her mouth and nose. Early in their investigations into her death, the police had found a handwritten letter at Dr Mifsud’s home in which she detailed an incident in which Mr El Gadi tried to strangle her, barely a month before.
Dr Mifsud wrote that, as the incident unfolded, Mr El Gadi had menacingly asked her if she would like to know how to kill someone without being found out.
The police pieced together Mr El Gadi’s footsteps on the night thanks to the established time of death, 1 a.m. which tied in perfectly with their working theory on the murder.
The police believed that the accused had followed Dr Mifsud to the Fortress Restaurant in Xemxija, then forced his way into her car after she dropped a friend home in Buġibba.
Mr Arnaud did not explain where the police think Mr El Gadi allegedly killed her but they believe he locked her inside her car and abandoned her on the dirt track off the coast road where she was found.
He then walked back to Buġibba where he had a rented car waiting for him parked near the Empire Cinema. He drove to Paceville and entered Champ Pastizzeria at 2.10 a.m., the officer said.
Investigators followed his footsteps and timed the trip to confirm that their theory made sense.
All fell into place when telecommunications records confirmed that Mr El Gadi had, in fact, followed the victim around on the night, discrediting the accused, who kept on changing his story.
Highlighting one such discrepancy, Mr Arnaud said that, while the accused claimed to have refuelled his car near the cinema in Buġibba, CCTV footage and sales records proved otherwise. He was actually in St Julians at the time he claimed to be in Buġibba.
Under cross examination, defence lawyer Martin Testaferrata Moroni Viani asked Mr Arnaud whether he had looked into the victim’s medical record and whether she could have died of natural causes.
Mr Arnaud said he had spoken to the mother, who told him her daughter was perfectly healthy, a reply that led to charges of a one-sided investigation.
The lawyer argued there was not enough evidence for his client to be placed under a bill of indictment. Moreover, he said, he found it very strange that the victim was helping his client with his CV even on the night she died when she was supposedly so scared of him.
Magistrate Saviour Demicoli ruled that there was enough evidence to place Mr El Gadi under a bill of indictment and put off the case for continuation.