A man yesterday claimed he still did not know what had gotten into his friend when he stabbed him four years ago.
Omar Faiz el Sallak, a Libyan national, said he was sharing cocaine with Noel Farrugia when he felt something pricking him and started to lose a lot of blood.
Mr Farrugia pushed him down the stairs telling him: “Allah hu akbar” (God is great).
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 recounted that, holding his abdomen to keep his intestines from spilling out, he went to his car, grabbed an axe and smashed Mr Farrugia’s motorcycle.
We were not involved in any argument. I do not know what got into himd
This version of events was, however, described as “a lie” by a defence lawyer who said he was incredulous at 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, Mr el Sallak insisted that he was, up to this day, at a loss as to why his friend had stabbed him. “We were friends and we used to even sleep at each other’s houses. 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.
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 10 grammes 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 repeatedly 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 told jurors that she ran into the bedroom when the commotion started but admitted Mr Farrugia told her he had stabbed Mr el Sallak.
Earlier yesterday, jurors heard scene-of-crime officers say the flat where the stabbing took place was cleaned and was smelling of detergent when the police arrived.
Patrick Farrugia and Jeffrey Hughes, from the National Laboratory, said they used a special chemical to establish whether there were traces of blood. Luminol, they said, was used in circumstances where 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 today 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.