The extent to which the two young daughters of lawyer Margaret Mifsud were “brainwashed” against their father following their mother’s death was “disgusting”, defence lawyer Martin Testaferrata Moroni Viani told a jury this morning.

All witnesses have now testified as the trial by jury of Libyan Nizar El Gadi – who stands accused of murdering his former wife Dr Mifsud – enters its final stages. 

Dr Mifsud was found strangled in her car in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq on April 19, 2012 after a night out with her colleagues in a Xemxija restaurant. The jury were today addressed by the accused’s defence lawyer.

Dr Testaferrata Moroni Viani referred to the two testimonies given by each of the couple’s daughters. Their first testimony was given a few days after their mother’s death, when the children were aged nine and seven.

Two years later, in January 2014, they testified again. This time, their testimony was filmed. In the first testimony, which the defence lawyer described as the “innocent testimony of two small children taken when the trauma was still fresh”, there already was an element of pressure from the children’s grandmother Tessie Mifsud, he argued.

Ms Mifsud immediately concluded that Nizar El Gadi had killed her daughter and that seed had already been planted into the young children’s minds at that stage, he noted. 

However, there was nothing in their testimony to indicate hostility, that he beat her up, he said. 

However, in the second testimony taken two years later, the children emphasised how their mother had filed a police report claiming that her former husband had tried to strangle her using his hands and then a string.

Garbage bags with his belongings were subsequently deposited at the police station and he was kicked out of the house he shared with Dr Mifsud, their two children and her parents.

“I say Margaret Mifsud invented the story of the alleged strangling.” The doctor’s report, he argued, had said that the red marks on her neck were not synonymous with that of a string. Two police officers also said they did not see any marks.

Police inspector Elton Taliana had testified to witnessing the marks, he said, describing his testimony as “lies”. Dr Mifsud, he suggested, had submitted the police report to force Mr El Gadi out of the house.

Yet she met him numerous times following the incident, as testified by the children themselves.

Attempting to illustrate Dr Mifsud’s personality, the lawyer described her as “enigmatic” as she was reserved and opened up her heart to no one expect to Geraldine Watson, who lived in Canada and with whom she corresponded via email. She did not even open up to her aunt, with whom she was very close.

“Margaret was not sincere with everyone. Maybe she was fed up of hearing her mother go on about her marrying a Libyan.

“My client was a playboy. He did not even have a fixed job.”

Dr Mifsud hailed from a humble background and her family was very proud of her for becoming a lawyer, he continued. Her mother’s only criticism of her revolved around her marriage to a Libyan.

“God knows what she went through. And how strong she was. She wanted him back so much that she even signed for his return to the island. She had no obligation to do so. He was physically out of the country, in Libya, once the marriage was annulled and had no way of returning.

“But she believed it was best for the children’s sake.”

Dr Mifsud was confused about her feelings for Mr El Gadi, he continued.

In their SMS exchanges, she texted the accused: “Leave me alone, you’re harassing me, you’re breaking the law.”

In response, he texted: “I love you, let us be together.”

The accused claimed he had a tryst with her before 8pm on the night she was found murdered. There was nothing to prove that he was with her between 11.30pm (after the accused had dropped off her colleague in Buġibba) and 2am.

At 2.15am, CCTV footage had captured the accused in Paceville.

And even if the accused were with the victim, his 60-kilogramme frame was not congruent with forensic evidence which indicated that Dr Mifsud was pinned down for at least two minutes without resisting. Dr Mifsud, he pointed out, did not have a slight frame.

Judge Antonio Mizzi is presiding over the case. Lawyers Kathleen Grima and Arthur Azzopardi are appearing parte civile on behalf of the family of the victim while Giannella Busuttil and Philip Galea Farrugia from the Attorney General’s Office are prosecuting.

The trial continues.