Libyan Nizar El Gadi was an irregular worker and a playboy who “lived the life of a king” and had no motive to kill his former wife, his lawyer argued in court yesterday.
Defence lawyer Martin Testaferrata Moroni Viani was addressing the jury yesterday as the trial of Mr El Gadi – who stands accused of murdering his former wife, Dr Margaret Mifsud – enters its final stages.
“My client is an irregular worker. Before, he was leading the life of a king. He lived in a house, went to the gym, had no legal ties and went out with other women. In his messages to Margaret, he told her that he loved her and that he wanted her.”
He referred to the fact that the victim’s mother had strongly objected to her daughter’s choice of husband. Yet despite the marriage having been annulled and Mr El Gadi being constrained to return to Libya, Dr Mifsud went out of her way to ensure he could return to the island, as she felt it was in their children’s best interests.
In his messages,he told her that he loved her and wanted her
The extent to which their two young daughters were “brainwashed” against their father following their mother’s death was “disgusting”, he continued.
In the daughters’ first testimony, taken days after their mother’s death, there was nothing to indicate any hostility, or that their father beat their mother up.
They had even testified that the two had kissed a few days before Dr Mifsud was found strangled in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq on April 19, 2012.
The tone of their second testimony, given two years later, had changed substantially, because they were influenced by their grandmother, who believed strongly that the accused had murdered her daughter.
Moreover, the call profiles indicated that the victim had always answered the accused, spending quite a while speaking to him. The victim’s mother claimed that her daughter had switched off her phone on the night because she was being harassed by Mr El Gadi.
“There are calls from unidentified numbers which were not answered. Maybe she switched her phone off because of someone else. As a lawyer, she worked in commercial sector – and we know how demanding clients can be.”
There was nothing to prove that the accused was with the victim between 11.30pm (after the accused had dropped off her colleague in Buġibba) and 2am.
At 2.15am, CCTV footage captured the accused in Paceville.
And even if one was to assume that the accused was with the victim at the time of the murder, his 60-kilogram frame was not congruent with forensic evidence which indicated that Dr Mifsud had been pinned down for at least two minutes without resisting. Dr Mifsud, he pointed out, did not have a slight frame.