A man involved in a scuffle with a witness shortly before the latter was due to testify in criminal proceedings in his regard has been cleared of all wrongdoing.
Deniro Magri, currently facing criminal proceedings over a murder in Marsa in February 2017, ended up facing fresh proceedings after a chance encounter with 37-year old Aaron Cassar, the man allegedly involved in an attempt to set fire to Mr Magri’s door on the same night and shortly before the murder.
One morning in January, some time before the two men were expected to face each other as accused and witness, Mr Magri and Mr Cassar crossed paths in Republic Street, a few metres away from the law courts.
Mr Cassar had allegedly faced Mr Magri saying threateningly "You haven’t gotten away with it yet," to which the other man had retorted "Wasn’t it enough that you tried to set fire to my door and landed me in all this trouble?"
This verbal altercation soon gave way to a violent scuffle wherein Mr Magri suffered grievous injuries to his legs, while Mr Cassar bore reddish marks on his skin which were medically certified as slight injuries.
Both men ended up facing separate charges over the incident, with Mr Magri being accused of causing slight injuries and breaching the peace and earlier bail conditions.
The evidence put forward by the prosecution consisted of CCTV footage which had captured the entire scene, from the start of the encounter onto the moment when the two men came into physical contact.
The court, presided over by magistrate Joseph Mifsud, after having closely examined the footage, observed that the sequence of events supported the version supplied by Mr Magri in his statement to the police.
However, this evidence did not prove the link between the reddened marks on Mr Cassar’s skin and the alleged violence inflicted by Mr Magri.
Only Mr Cassar himself could have provided the necessary link, but the man had opted not to testify in the proceedings for fear of self-incrimination, the court observed.
As for the other charges, the court concluded that the prosecution had failed to put forward the necessary proof.
Mr Magri had not knowingly approached Mr Cassar, a witness in his case, to tamper with evidence and thereby breach one of the bail conditions, but the resulting evidence indicated quite the opposite, Magistrate Mifsud observed.
After a detailed analysis of all the evidence put forward, the court was left with a "lurking doubt" which favoured the accused who was cleared of all accusations.
The two men are facing separate proceedings stemming from the death of Sylvester Farrugia whose lifeless body had been discovered by a police woman alongside a parked Toyota Starlet in Simpson Street, Marsa in the early hours of February 12, 2017.
Lawyers Giannella de Marco and Stephen Tonna Lowell were defence counsel.