The trial of a Syrian man due to have started today, over the murder of another Syrian whom he allegedly struck repeatedly with a mallet, has been put off to November 1.
Counsel requested the postponment in order to await evidence requested from abroad.
The murder took place three years ago in Selmun following an argument over money
Ebrahem Alhamow, 29, stands charged with the murder of Ismail Ebdou. The latter was found dead in his van at the bottom of a hill in Selmun.
During the compilation of evidence, Homicide squad inspector Christopher Pullicino testified that the accused had described how he hit the victim on his head with a mallet. The information tallied with what the police had found on the scene of the crime, the inspector said.
He said the police managed to find the suspect after Carmela Buhagiar, the victim's partner, phoned them to report that Ebdou was missing.
When interrogated, the accused said he had met the victim near the roundabout leading to the university and there he asked him to lend him Lm200 (€466). The victim had already lent him Lm500 (€1,166) on another occasion.
Insp. Pullicino said the accused told the police that the victim insulted him and a quarrel ensued. Alhamow drove off to Selmun and the other followed him
The accused pushed the victim, who fell to the ground. According to Alhamow's account, he fetched a mallet from the victim's own van and stared hitting him on the head with it.
He then dragged him and put him in the van, where he continued beating him on the head with the mallet. He threw the mallet inside, disengaged the gears, released the handbrake and pushed the van down a hillside.
He then climbed down to the van to look for the mallet but failed to find it. Insp. Pullicino said the mallet was discovered by the police near the van the following morning after it probably fell out as the vehicle rolled down the hill.
The accused told the police he threw the Sim card from the mobile phone he had used to call the victim and the victim's own Sim card and battery over the Regional Road bridge. They did not turn up in a search, Insp. Pullicino said.
The accused also threw away a blood-stained top he was wearing and the police later found it at Tal-Barrani Road.
Alhamow also told the police he washed his car with sea water at Birzebbuga to remove splashes of the victim's blood. From the flat where he was living, the police also retrieved a T-shirt and a pair of shorts which had been washed to remove blood stains.
Analysis of mobile phone records showed that the accused had spent almost six minutes on the phone with Ebdou at about 9 p.m. on July 30. The victim was found dead on the following day by two German tourists who were on the way to the beach. The autopsy revealed he had died of a fractured skull and haemorrhage.
It resulted that the victim had married a Maltese woman but their marriage only lasted a month when she found out he was married and had children in Syria without her knowledge.