Martin Scicluna’s widow was hoping the death of her husband’s killer would heal her wounds but instead she has to accept that closure will now forever elude her “broken family” because of an inept justice system.
“I thought I’d be relieved when he died because he would face judgment before his creator, but instead we’re still suffering because we will never get the answers to make sense of Martin’s death,” Jacqui Scicluna told The Sunday Times of Malta.
The man charged with her husband’s murder seven years ago, Dione Mercieca, died on Thursday after suffering throat cancer.
The case dates back to September 16, 2008, when Mr Scicluna, suspecting foul play, confronted his business partner at their office; All Sports International, in Qormi, that specialised in artificial turf.
In a declaration to the police, Mr Mercieca had said he could no longer tolerate Mr Scicluna’s “daily aggression” so he left the office, walked downstairs and went to his car, parked four metres away, to get his shotgun. He returned to the office and shot his business partner twice at close range. Mr Mercieca then drove to the law courts and turned himself in.
Ms Scicluna and her two children, now aged 21 and 23, are still baffled how justice was delayed in a “run-of-the mill” case that should have long gone to trial.
Their lawyer, Roberto Montalto, blames the Attorney General’s office for the “unjustified delays” because the case got bogged down by a substantial amount of irrelevant researches that led to unnecessary delays. “I don’t have any suspicions of any wrongdoing. It’s just one of those unfortunate situations where the case gets sucked into the court’s bureaucratic system,” Dr Montalto said.
When he was alive there was hope justice would be served; now that will never happen
“This should have been a simple homicide case as the perpetrator admitted to the killing,” he added.
Mr Mercieca’s death has meant the muzzle silencing the family has been lifted, and Ms Scicluna sobbed as she recalled how she has spent nearly eight years suffering in silence. “I’ve been wanting to have a voice and I’ve been waiting so long to speak out. What hurts most is that Dione never showed any remorse, nor ever apologised for what he did. He never asked for forgiveness,” Ms Scicluna said.
“While Dione was gallivanting across the world and partaking in his family’s celebrations, my children were deprived of their father and he never saw them graduate,” she said.
The Scicluna family were infuriated when the court allowed Mr Mercieca to travel on business trips while out on bail.
“It was so painful to see Dione upload photos of his trips abroad, or a grandchild’s birth on Facebook; I guess I was punishing myself by accessing his account – it just made me feel increasingly bitter,” she said.
Ms Scicluna lamented how as victims in the case they ended up as casualties of a justice system that failed them. She spoke about the frequent problems she encountered from frozen assets to legal fines and how if she was not a fighter everything would have fallen apart.
The murder also changed the course of their 21-year-old daughter’s life. Roxanna, who was 14 at the time, had been planning to study nutrition before the incident, but then opted to read law in the hope of unravelling the truth.
“I cannot understand why a simple case took so long. I was waiting for the day in court when I was hoping to hear why my father was killed. When Dione was alive there was hope justice would be served; now that will never happen.”