A young man who stabbed his ex-girlfriend more than 20 times in a jealous frenzy and left her to bleed to death after deciding that she was better dead than with another man was yesterday jailed for 25 years.
Walid Bazena, 23, was facing life in jail but filed a guilty plea at a very early stage of the proceedings.
Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono however noted that the crime did not seem to carry any extenuating circumstances and was simply the result of the cruel actions of a man who decided he would kill his girlfriend as a matter of honour for breaking up with him.
He heard how Bazena, from Libya, and Rachel Muscat had been seeing each other for years but by August 12, 2002, the relationship had been over for about a year.
On that day, Muscat and Bazena got in touch by telephone and agreed to meet in Ghaxaq.
They met some time after 6 p.m. and had words because Muscat was angry at Bazena for some things he had apparently said about them.
When Bazena realised that Muscat would not go back to him, he decided that he loved her too much to let her go and that if she would not have him, no one else could have her.
He grabbed a bread knife and stabbed her more than 20 times, leaving her to die in a pool of blood.
He then hid the body under the bed, quickly cleaned the blood, changed his clothes and left, taking with him some personal effects.
He stayed in hiding for a few days but was then overcome with remorse and gave himself up.
Senior counsel to the republic Mark Said prosecuted.
Dr Joseph Mifsud was counsel to Bazena while Dr Jason Azzopardi represented the Muscat family.