The fugitive who gave himself up to the police on Boxing Day, Fabio Psaila, is likely to be charged with his part in the failed heist on the HSBC headquarters in June, along with the botched hold-up on an Attard jeweller earlier this month.
He is expected to be arraigned this afternoon.
Mr Psaila presented himself at the back of the police headquarters near the CID at around 7 p.m. on Sunday, following protracted negotiations with a senior officer and intermediaries, police sources told The Times.
He had been on the run since December 3, the day of the failed hold-up on Michael Mizzi in Attard during which Mr Psaila is believed to have been wounded when the jeweller’s son Silvio wrestled a sawn-off shotgun from a robber’s hands and turned it against the three assailants.
Darren Debono, known as It-Topo, was arrested on the spot after he was badly wounded and collapsed in pain – the shot almost cost him his leg. Since he has been on the run, Mr Psaila is believed to have been nursing the wounds he too received that night to his hand and other parts of his body.
The police have not yet established exactly where he had been hiding but investigations are ongoing on this point.
Mr Psaila presented himself with a long stubble, a beard almost, which he had grown in the past weeks. He was in relatively good shape considering his injuries, which do not seem to present significant signs of infection in spite of the fact that they do not appear to have been treated professionally.
The police interrogated Mr Psaila yesterday but it is understood that he released no statement. On Sunday he was taken to Mater Dei Hospital shortly after giving himself up. X-Rays confirmed he had pellets from shotgun cartridges lodged deep in different parts of his body.
Psaila served time in Sicily
While in hiding, Mr Psaila was implicated in the alleged criminal gang of former police inspector and lawyer David Gatt, who stands charged with masterminding at least three hold-ups and advising criminals on a fourth.
According to the testimony of Police Constable Mario Portelli, who spilled the beans on the former Rabat inspector, Dr Gatt considered Mr Psaila as “the general” in his criminal organisation, which the young lawyer modelled on the Mafia Corleonese and in which he likened himself to the ruthless Sicilian boss Toto Riina.
On the witness stand, PC Portelli also revealed that the police had been trying to buy time before the arrest of Dr Gatt in a bid to capture Mr Psaila. The constable was playing a double game with Dr Gatt, who, he said, asked him to seek medical help for Mr Psaila.
PC Portelli said he contacted his superiors to let them know the lawyer was harbouring the criminal. He was told to bide time so that Mr Psaila could be apprehended but Dr Gatt was arrested the following morning.
Police sources said they held back and acted cautiously at certain points because they feared PC Portelli could put himself in harm’s way.
“There were elements that suggested that PC Portelli’s information leak could have endangered him at that point,” a police source had said.
Over the past few years, Mr Psaila has faced charges of car theft and handling stolen goods. He was also jailed for four years by a Sicilian court for drug trafficking, after being arrested in Sicily following “the largest ever drug haul” in Catania.