It was only the presence of the police that prevented a massacre from being committed by Carmel Saliba, a magistrate heard yesterday as Mr Saliba was charged with the attempted murder of 20 people at the PN club in Mqabba on Saturday night.

Mr Saliba, 31, from Kirkop, was remanded in custody after pleading not guilty to the attempted murder of the people who were inside the club by firing several shots in their direction from outside.

Standing before presiding magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna, Mr Saliba also denied seriously injuring Sylvana Callus and Omar Cucciardi and slightly injuring nine people, aged between 21 and 37, who were in the club at the time of the shooting.

In his request for bail, legal aid lawyer Martin Fenech told the court that his client had left the club after an argument broke out inside. However, when he returned in his car, he found the doors closed.

"He shot at the closed door - he never intended to kill or hurt anyone," argued Dr Fenech.

In fact, he explained, people were injured because they happened to be near the shut door. "It was just his bad luck that he hurt people when he fired the shots."

In a further effort to convince the court that his client had no intention of killing anyone, Dr Fenech pointed out that Mr Saliba did not fire again through any of the four pellet holes made in the door.

Objecting to the request for bail, prosecuting Inspector Anthony Portelli told the court that Mr Saliba fired shots at the door as it was being closed by people in the club.

Insp. Portelli said that Mr Saliba had met a man he had an argument with about 10 months ago. "This man tried to buy a drink for Mr Saliba, who refused and left."

The police were immediately summoned and soon after they arrived, they saw Mr Saliba driving his Toyota in the direction of the club at very high speed.

"He got out of the car carrying a shotgun. The police tried to overpower him while the people inside the club were trying to close the door," said Insp. Portelli.

Mr Saliba, he continued, was calling to the people inside the club to come out.

"He knew exactly what he was doing. Thank God the police were there as it would have been a massacre," said the inspector, adding that "Malta has become a cowboy town with people shooting at doors."

He said the police had risked their lives by taking the action they did.

Mr Saliba also denied being in possession of a stolen automatic shotgun without a police licence, carrying the gun during the commission of a crime, firing the shotgun in an inhabited area, attacking and violently resisting police officers and disobeying their orders, breaching public order and damaging the front door of the PN's club.

He further denied driving his car dangerously and in a negligent manner, damaging Michel Farrugia's vehicle, insulting Mr Farrugia and using vulgar language in public.

Mr Saliba also pleaded not guilty to committing a crime during the operative period of a two-year conditional discharge.

Dr Fenech made a second submission on his client's behalf in case the court denied his first request for bail. He explained that, as a pastime, Mr Saliba kept several sheep that had just given birth to lambs and asked the court to allow his client to visit them for one hour every day.

Magistrate Apap Bologna refused to grant either request and remanded Mr Saliba in custody.

Police Inspectors Anthony Portelli, Michael Mallia and Priscilla Caruana prosecuted.

Lawyer Martin Fenech appeared as legal aid for Mr Saliba. Lawyers Franco Debono and Charmaine Cherrett appeared in parte civile for the victims.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.