Updated 1.30pm, adds sentence

A man who was set to face trial on Monday for attempted murder, was handed an eight-and-a-half-year prison term after admitting to attempting to kill his estranged partner three years ago, insisting that the crime was not completed because he “voluntarily desisted”.

The sentence followed a plea deal agreed upon just hours before his trial began. 

Miloud Elforjani, a 41-year-old Libyan national, was set to be tried for having stabbed his partner several times in the abdomen in November 2020. 

The court heard on Monday that Elforjani was pleading guilty to several charges but insisting he had “voluntarily desisted” from killing his partner. 

The two, who met in 2016, had met for a chat that day in St Paul's Bay.  

But their relationship turned sour when the woman told Elforjani that he was not the father of the child she was bearing. 

She wanted to break up but Elforjani would not take no for an answer. 

That November afternoon three years ago, he called her and asked her to meet him at St Paul’s Bay. 

The two were chatting inside the victim’s car when she again insisted on breaking up. 

That was when the accused stabbed the woman. 

That day inside her car he was angry when she insisted that there was no future for them as a couple. They quarreled too much and there was little hope that things would change.

It angered him to hear her say that. He told her to call her mum and say goodbye to her four kids because he was going to kill her. 

That was when he pulled a penknife out of his bag and stabbed her hard. 

One of the wounds penetrated her abdominal cavity but doctors later certified that it was not life-threatening.

She also suffered two lacerations and defence wounds. 

When the woman tried to get out of the car, the accused pulled her back, grabbing her by the hair. 

She finally managed to slip away.

Before that incident, Elforjani used to threaten "to kill and bury her".

He was subsequently charged with attempted murder, grievously injuring the victim with a sharp, pointed instrument, carrying the weapon without a police licence, harassment, causing the woman to fear of violence and breaching previous bail conditions. 

The case reached trial stage, with the prosecution seeking a 40-year jail term. But an unexpected twist at the eleventh hour brought proceedings to an end. 

Before the start of the first session, defence lawyer Roberto Montalto informed the court that the accused would plead guilty to all the charges listed in the bill of indictment except for the first, namely the charge of attempted homicide. 

The lawyer explained that the crime had not been completed not because of some cause independent of the perpetrator’s will but because the accused had voluntarily desisted. 

In light of that information, the Attorney General agreed to a plea deal. 

Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, presiding over the Criminal Court, suspended the hearing until the parties filed a joint application outlining the terms of that deal. 

The court upheld the deal agreed and condemned Elforjani to eight-and-a-half years of imprisonment minus the time spent in preventive custody. 

He was also fined €116.47 for carrying a penknife without a police licence. 

Elforjani was ordered to pay €3139.59 in court expert expenses and was bound not to molest the victim and her family. That order was to apply for two years.

The court also placed the accused under a treatment order. 

AG lawyers Anthony Vella and Abigail Caruana Vella are prosecuting. Lawyer Roberto Montalto is defence counsel. Inspectors Audrey Micallef and Ryan Vella had prosecuted before the Magistrates’ Court.