A 68-year-old man accused of killing his son will continue to remain in preventive custody after a judge threw out arguments that he had to leave prison because of the COVID-19 outbreak there.
Salvu Dalli was denied bail after his lawyers argued that he was vulnerable to contracting the virus at Corradino Correctional Facility.
Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera ruled Dalli was not trustworthy and there was a possibility that he could tamper with the evidence over this case.
A lawyer from the attorney general’s office, Nadia Attard, also countered the COVID-19 argument by saying that there were more coronavirus cases outside prison than inside it so he was just as exposed to contracting the virus.
At the end of October, the government said there were 12 active cases of prisoners infected with COVID-19 and that another eight had recovered and are back among the general population of the prison.
The infected inmates were being held in Corradino Correctional Facility’s Division 6, the maximum-security wing. The division, normally used as a punitive solitary confinement area, is being used as a quarantine facility to isolate incoming prisoners.
Dalli stands charged with shooting dead his son Antoine, 37, on August 7 at his Għaxaq home. Antoine was found dead in the shower, having suffered a single shot in the stomach.
In the last court sitting, Psychiatrist George Debono told Magistrate Marseanne Farrugia that Dalli was in his right senses at the time of the commission of the crime, was fully aware of his actions and is fit to stand trial.
Debono said that Dalli has been receiving treatment for depression and anxiety, probably owing to the difficult relationship he had with one of his sons.
In previous sittings the court heard how the father had filed several reports to the police claiming he was assaulted and threatened by his son and he even mentioned this to the psychiatrist.
Denying bail, the magistrate noted that Dalli allegedly committed the crime during the operative term of a suspended sentence when he was convicted, in February this year, of having stabbed a relative.
“The court does not have peace of mind that he will not commit another crime so the request for bail is being turned down,” Madam Justice Scerri Herrera said in her judgment.
Madam Justice Scerri Herrera said that according to law, the court may grant bail if, after taking into account the seriousness of the offence and character of the accused it is satisfied that the accused:
• will appear when ordered by the authority specified in the bail bond;
• will not abscond or leave Malta;
• will observe any of the conditions which the court would consider proper to impose in its decree granting bail;
• will not interfere or attempt to interfere with witnesses or otherwise obstruct or attempt to obstruct the course of justice in relation to himself or to any other person, or will not commit any other offence.
She said the Attorney General’s argument regarding the seriousness of the crime he had allegedly committed was not a good enough argument to merit being upheld.
However, she agreed with the defence that the prosecution was slow in summonsing civil witnesses to testify and urged the police to bring them to testify in court when the case continues on November 25.
Police Inspector Roderick Attard is prosecution. Lawyers Lennox Vella and Marisa Mifsud appeared for the accused. Lawyers Franco Debono, Francesca Zarb and Kathleen Calleja Grima appeared parte civile for the victim’s family.