Man stands trial over attempted murder

Terence William Zammit, 29, of St Paul's Bay, yesterday started facing a trial by jury on attempted murder charges.

The prosecution is claiming that the accused, who was a director of Zammit McKeon Enterprises and a shareholder in IAS Ltd and Heiti Investments, used to borrow money on a regular basis from Mario Farrugia of Hamrun.

The relationship between the accused and Farrugia was a normal one but, out of the blue, on October 19, 2000, the accused went to Farrugia's residence after having phoned him and shot him in the face at point blank range with a pistol armed with a silencer.

The victim shook his head when shown the weapon in court yesterday. "Only now do I realise how big the weapon was," Farrugia said.

He explained how Zammit had phoned him and asked to meet him on the day the shooting took place. As he could not see him there and then, he asked the accused to call at about 10 a.m.

When Farrugia took the witness stand in the morning, he at first gave a different version to the one he had given before the inquiring magistrate. In the initial version, he had said Zammit had phoned him from his mobile phone to tell him he was behind the garage door and as soon as Zammit went in and he closed the door behind them, the victim turned and saw Zammit pointing a pistol at him. He had said he heard a shot but did not feel anything. He had realised he had a lot of blood in his mouth and so called out his wife's name and wrestled with Zammit.

In his evidence yesterday, Farrugia recounted that when Zammit went in, he was pointing the gun at the ground and they wrestled. He did not know how he was hit. The witness could not remember what he had told the inquiring magistrate and sections of his evidence were read out to him. He said he could not remember he had said so or whether he had even taken an oath.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, warned the witness that he had sworn to tell the truth and he should try to remember as best as he could. The court could order his arrest if it felt he was not telling the truth.

Returning to the witness stand after a short break, Farrugia said what had actually happened was what he had said soon after the incident. The accused had pointed the gun at him and shot him, even though they had had no argument.

Farrugia said he had been lending Zammit considerable sums of money and the accused always gave him a cheque as a guarantee and always repaid him at a low rate of interest.

Rita Farrugia, the victim's wife, testified how she went into the garage and saw Zammit holding her husband while holding what looked to her as "a black pipe".

She started weeping when she again saw the gun with a black six-inch silencer attached to it "because it reminded her of the whole incident".

She said she started shouting that they were killing her husband.

Two men who worked at a nearby confectionery testified that they heard Rita Farrugia shouting out for help and they went in the garage and separated the two men.

They both said the victim told them that Zammit was his friend and they should let him go near him and he even went in the ambulance with him.

ENT surgeon Dennis Mallia testified that the injury was slight and the accused had no physical scars or permanent damage but said he had expressed surprise when he had examined the victim initially and noted he had been very lucky to survive because the bullet ended up one to two centimetres away from major arteries leading to the brain.

Brig. Maurice Calleja said the pistol had been a modified starting pistol with a homemade barrel that had been threaded so that a silencer could be fitted.

The case continues.

Dr Mark Said prosecuted.

Dr Manwel Mallia and Dr Giannella Caruana Curran are appearing for Zammit.