A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder at Hal far in 2010.
Fodie Keita was convicted of the murder of Adame Diabate, 30 from Mali. He was also convicted of hiding Diabate’s body and stealing his mobile phone.
The victim’s body was found, buried in a shallow grave near the Hal Far open centre. A knife hilt with the letters “F K” was found on the scene.
The prosecution argued that the accused had murdered the Malian national over a work argument by stabbing him several times and then crushing his skull with a rock, before stealing his mobile phone. The Samsung mobile found in the possession of the accused had belonged to the victim but had the accused’s SIM card in it.
A fellow Hal Far Open Centre resident had reported hearing a sound behind a tree, when a voice, speaking in Malian tongue had ordered him to keep on walking.Three possible suspects came to mind, the first being the accused, the witness had testified.
Defence lawyers argued that although some sort of struggle must have taken place, no traces of the man’s DNA was found on the victim and none of the victim’s DNA was found on him. Also, on that day in the Open Centre, there had been at least two other individuals with the initials FK.
Over the weekend, jurors were addressed by Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi, who summed up the evidence and legal points upon which the jury was to base its decision. Earlier today, the jury retired returning with a strong verdict of guilt: 8 votes to 1 on the count of murder, 7 votes to 2 on the accusation of hiding the body and of stealing the victim's phone.
Lawyers Lara Lanfranco and Kevin Valletta from the Office of the Attorney General prosecuted.
Lawyers Marc Sant and Simon Micallef Stafrace were defence counsel.