A man charged with the murder of his wife yesterday told a court that his mother-in-law did not like him from the outset due to his “Libyan blood”.

“I understood her – she said wanted a Maltese boyfriend for her daughter. I told her ‘I’m poor, it’s true, because I don’t have any money but I can offer her the love one should’.”

Mr El Gadi is charged with strangling Margaret Mifsud, whose body was found in her car at Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq on April 19, 2012.

Taking the witness stand yesterday, he insisted Dr Mifsud’s mother believed he was taking her daughter for a ride and that his only goal was to obtain Maltese citizenship.

The couple wed after Dr Mifsud fell pregnant. They went on to have a second daughter before the marriage was annulled two years later.

As a result, he was informed he had no right to remain in Malta and returned to Libya, where he lived for two years.

I understand her –she said she wanted a Maltese boyfriend for her daughter

In 2008, Dr Mifsud, who worked as a lawyer, arranged for the father of her children to return to Malta. He lived in Mosta for a while but was then allowed to reside at the Birkirkara home of Dr Mifsud’s parents – on the condition it was purely for the sake of the children and that he did not enter into a relationship with Dr Mifsud, he said. However, he said problems again erupted with the victim’s mother – but never with the victim herself. “Margaret would cry and tell me that they [her family] were bothering her. I would tell her ‘let’s leave’, but she refused because of her mum’s heart problems.”

He was eventually kicked out of the house after allegedly trying to strangle the victim.

Confronted with evidence that Dr Mifsud sent e-mails to her Canadian friend Geraldine Watson revealing that she was unhappy with his treatment of her, the defendant said he had never heard of the friend and there were no problems between them.

On the night of the murder, he claimed he saw the victim before she went to a restaurant with her colleagues just before 8pm. He met her in Birkirkara, round the corner from her parents’ house to collect some CVs. He then headed to Paceville where he met a Russian woman, he said.

The trial continues tomorrow.