A man murdered in Gozo earlier this month was stabbed in the heart and bled to death on the way to hospital, a court heard on Tuesday.   

The compilation of evidence against Syrian national Maher Aljasem, 24, from Marsalforn, continued on Tuesday morning in the Gozo law courts.  

Aljasem stands accused of killing fellow Syrian Fawaz Najem, 25, during a heated confrontation between two groups of Syrians in his Marsalforn home at around 9pm on May 7. 

Homicide inspector Wayne Camilleri told the court on Tuesday that an autopsy report had concluded that Najem had been stabbed in the chest with the blade piercing the heart.   

The victim had suffered other injuries and went into shock before passing away as his friends frantically drove him to hospital in the back of a white BMW.  

The inspector said the scene of the crime, a house called Marija on the road leading to Marsalforn Bay, was awash with blood when police arrived on the scene. 

Significant amounts of blood were also found in front of the house.  

The inspector also told the court that the accused had claimed during interrogation that he had acted in self-defence.  

Aljasem claims to have picked up a flick knife dropped on the floor by one of his alleged attackers and said he started swinging it in self-defence as they beat him.   

He told police he had hit someone wearing a white t-shirt but did not know who it was.   

The murder investigation 

Inspector Camilleri walked the court through the ins and outs of the murder investigation.   

He said he had discovered a metal pipe and some planks of wood near the scene of the crime which he suspected had been used as weapons in the altercation.   

Investigators spoke to witnesses nearby, who told them that they had seen a group of around eight men arriving at the house, followed by a loud commotion once they entered the property.  

The witnesses told police that they had seen the men carrying makeshift weapons but could not identify them from photos. 

Inspector Camilleri said the Gozo district police had arrested several Syrians at the Gozo Hospital.  

These men had driven the victim to the hospital, he said.   

The men had been certified as having suffered various injuries, indicating they had been involved in a fight, the court was also told.   

Meanwhile, another Syrian national was arrested at the scene of the crime.   

Questioning suspects, but few answers 

The inspector said he had started questioning the men that same night.    

All those interrogated denied being involved in the commotion, claiming instead to have tried to break up fighting.   

The accused, Aljasem, told police that the fight had been the result of long-standing tensions over the political and social situation in Syria.     

He declined to answer questions during his first formal interrogation.

Two other Syrian men who live in the same house as the accused told the police that it was difficult to identify most of the aggressors as their faces had been covered.   

Police also discovered that some of the aggressors appeared to have left a mobile device behind at the scene of the murder.  

During cross examination, the defence asked whether Aljasem had been injured, including to the head.   

After some back and forth, the inspector replied that the accused had suffered injuries to his arms, requiring stitches, and some injuries to the head too.   

Roommate was knocked unconscious 

Ahmed El Hamdan, a tiler who lived with the accused, gave lengthy testimony on Tuesday.  A police witness testified last week about what El Hamdan claimed to have seen.

He recalled how on the night of the incident, he had gone home after work and started cooking dinner.   

At around 8.30pm he heard a knock on the door.  

These were the victim and another man he could not identify.  One of them was carrying a metal pipe.   

El Hamdan said he had no relationship with either of these men and simply knew them as passing acquaintances.   

They asked for the accused, but El Hamdan said he did not know where he was.    

When asked what they wanted with the Aljasem, the witness said the men had used a phrase which in Arabic which could either mean that they wanted to slit his throat or that they wanted to give him a beating.   

The men pushed their way in and a commotion ensued. It eventually spilt out onto the street.  

The witness said the men were then joined by another five who assaulted him, and he wasn’t sure why.  He lost consciousness and then came to when the rest of the commotion was over.   

He also testified at length about an earlier altercation between the victim and some other Syrians that he had been involved in earlier that same day.  

Times of Malta published footage of that incident earlier this month.   

Second roommate’s testimony

Next to testify was Ahmed Muhammed, known to his friends as little Ahmed, who also lived in the same house as Aljasem.  

Describing the fight that had occurred earlier on the day of the murder, Muhammed said the victim had walked by and made some disparaging comments, implying he was superior to them.  

An English woman who was in the area at the time of the murder told the court that she saw a chair being thrown out of the house where Najem was killed.

She said she had also seen a person rummaging through a nearby construction site and spotted that person emerge with a piece of wood.   

Another witness, an Englishman who lives in the area, told the court he saw a streetfight at that time.

He saw the victim, drenched in blood, being dragged into a car and being driven off.   

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech presided over the case, which continues June 3 at 9am.   

Lawyers Peter Fenech, Elena Fenech and Amy Zahra were defence counsel. 

Lawyers Franco Debono, Deborah Camilleri and Matthew Xuereb appeared parte civile, on behalf of the victim's family for the victims.