A man jailed over the murder of Gżira hairstylist Alfie Rizzo has failed in a double bid to be released from prison, with his second attempt deemed a waste of the court’s time. 

In a decree on Monday, magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo threw out an application filed by Aimen Said Giali El Baden, who was handed a 25-year jail term in 2002.

Rizzo, a renowned hairdresser, was found in a pool of blood inside his salon in 1998. He had been stabbed 17 times. A jury found El Baden, a Libyan national who was 17 years old at the time, guilty by unanimous verdict.

Another man involved,  Ibrahim Shnishah, was tried separately and received a 30-year sentence.  

El Baden has now argued that he ought to have been released from prison on November 5 and that consequently he is being unlawfully detained. He filed an application to that effect on November 10, before another court presided over by Magistrate Josette Demicoli. 

That first request proved unsuccessful. 

Just over a month later, on December 15, El Baden filed a second application which landed before Magistrate Farrugia Frendo. The magistrate heard the testimony of El Baden himself as well as that of an officer representing the Correctional Services Agency.

When delivering its decision the court fully agreed with lawyer Mario Mifsud’s argument, on behalf of prison authorities, that El Baden’s second application was “an exact copy” of the other one filed in November. 

El Baden at the time of the murder.

After comparing both applications the court could not but agree with the lawyer’s argument.

Indeed, the second document was “an identical, word for word” version of the first, citing the same articles of law and based on the same facts.

Although the second application came before a different magistrate, it was still one and the same court, pointed out Magistrate Farrugia Frendo.

“It was only the date that was different,” said the magistrate, fully upholding Mifsud’s argument that El Baden’s second request was intended simply to waste the court’s time.

It was also a kind of forum shopping whereby El Baden was trying his luck before a different magistrate, said the court, throwing out the man’s “vexatious” request.