One of the suspects of the double murder of a couple in Sliema has asked the court for permission to be able to visit his dying mother in hospital. 

Albanian national Daniel Muka asked Magistrate Nadine Lia to be allowed to visit his mother, who is a patient in a hospital in Malta, because her days were numbered. 

The magistrate told his lawyer, Noel Bianco, to make the request formally through a proper application filed in court. The prosecution would need to be notified of this request and be given time to reply before she can decree. 

The request came at the end of the compilation of evidence against Muka, who was escorted into the courtroom wearing a high visibility orange boiler suit and surrounded by three heavily-armed Corradino Correction Facility officers wearing bullet-proof vests. 

Court expert Mario Scerri told the court that according to a reconstruction of the case, the aggressors grained entry into the house and first shot Pandolfino close to the front door at almost point-blank range. 

Christian Pandolfino and his partner Ivor Maciejowski were shot dead in their home in Locker Street on August 18.

Christian Pandolfino, 58, was shot from close range, while his partner, art dealer Ivor Maciejowski, 30, was shot once in the head from a medium-range, Scerri said. The shooting took place on August 18 in their house in Locker Street, Sliema. 

He noted that the gunshots were not contact shots as this would have left a burn on the body. They then shot Maciejowski in the face and the shot was from a medium range, he said, because the injuries he had were different to Pandolfino’s. 

Scerri said the shot that killed Maciejowski came from a lower level since the bullet penetrated the victim through the nose, travelled through the brain and existed from the back side of the skull. 

Scerri said Pandolfino had five entry points but only two of these shots had exited the body. He had shot wounds on his lip, the right side of his neck, one that went through the heart and another one in the stomach. Another shot, the sixth one, did not penetrate the body but left a mark on the skin because the victim was probably in the process of turning or falling to the ground. 

Pathologists Ali Safraz and Tiffany Buhagiar, who conducted autopsies on both victims, explained that Pandolfino had a total of 12 wounds, but not all were caused by a firearm. Some of them were bruises.

Buhagiar said he had five entry gunshot wounds but only two exit wounds. In fact, pellets were found in the heart and the stomach while one shot went through the skull. Buhagiar said that Maciejowski had a single entry and exit wound.

A representative of the Asset Recovery Bureau testified that Muka’s assets were funds sent and received through Fexserv, a freezing order issued by Identity Malta and a Go Mobile account. The same exercise was carried out for the other murder suspect, North Macedonian bouncer Viktor Dragomanski, but  no details of his assets were divulged in court. 

Emergency doctor Michael Spiteri from the Mater Dei emergency department testified that he was one of two rapid response teams who were sent to the scene of the shooting incident on August 18. 

Muka’s case was deferred to January 20 while that of Dragomanski before Magistrate Joseph Mifsud will take place on December 22. 

A third man, Jesper Kristiansen was extradited from Spain to Malta on Thursday and will appear in court on Friday. 

Homicide Superintendent James Grech and inspector Colin Sheldon prosecuted. Lawyers Noel Bianco, George Anton Buttigieg and Joe Brincat were defence counsel. Lawyer Joe Giglio appeared parte civile for the victims’ families.