Prime witness stresses accused's determination

Meinrad Calleja was prepared to "pay with his life to obliterate Richard Cachia Caruana from the face of the earth", the Criminal Court heard yesterday.

Testifying in the case against Calleja, who is pleading not guilty to complicity in the attempted murder of the prime minister's personal assistant, Joseph Fenech, known as Zeppi l-hafi, said the accused used to exert pressure on him on a daily basis.

"I did not commit suicide because I was strong. You had to be in my shoes to see what kind of pressure I was under," the witness said.

Fenech said the accused had indicated to him a residence in Zejtun, where the victim often used to be, and suggested he could shoot him from behind a rubble wall. When Fenech kept finding excuses the accused took him to Mdina to show him where the victim lived.

The witness spoke about his relationship with the accused, which went back to about 1990.

He explained how, while on bail after he and the accused's sister Clarissa were caught with a kilo of drugs, Calleja had approached him but Fenech told him to keep away as he was on bail and would lose the deposit.

"He told me he wanted to get rid of someone and promised a kilo of drugs and I told him I did not want to touch drugs again as they had landed me in trouble.

"He later met me and told me he wanted to kill Cachia Caruana. I told him he must be crazy as that would stir up a hornet's nest and hell would break loose. I told him I did not want to get involved and that Cachia Caruana had never done anything wrong to me.

"He then told me it suits me as well as him and I told him Cachia Caruana had nothing to do with my case but he insisted it suited us both," Fenech said.

The witness said the accused had started pestering him and told him that the victim had ruined his father's career and that his sister was in a lot of trouble. Thus, he had wanted the man killed by Christmas to pay him back as he was the cause of his family's trouble.

Fenech said he kept objecting but the accused kept piling pressure:

"This went on for at least two months. He then started threatening me by reminding me I had a wife and children and I knew he could do something. To shake him off, I told him I would be finding someone else to do the crime. The victim had done nothing to me; my excuse was that he could recognise me. It was an excuse because I did not want to do it. I could have hid my identity and killed him.

Fenech said he had found Charles Attard, iz-Zambi, "who was more often drunk than in his senses and who I was sure would procrastinate".

Fenech insisted he did not want the crime to take place and found ways to prolong matters, telling Calleja one thing and Attard another so that the crime would not be committed.

"I tried to postpone it till after Christmas so he would stop pressing me about it.

"Later he told me he would bring Italians to kill Cachia Caruana and myself. I knew he wanted to get rid of me too after doing it because of what I knew about the case."

Fenech recounted how he engaged Attard and promised him Lm15,000, the same amount that Calleja had promised him as he wanted to have nothing to do with the case. Attard, in turn, enrolled Ian Farrugia to help him.

He said he took Attard to Mdina. Attard asked for a revolver with a silencer and when Fenech told him he did not have one, Attard said he should not worry as he would use a knife.

On December 18 (the night the stabbing took place), which was his daughter's birthday, Fenech said he had remained at home. The following morning, he woke up early as he always did and heard on Super One radio that the prime minister's personal assistant had been stabbed.

"I was stunned as I did not want it to take place. Some time later the door-bell rang and it was Ian Farrugia who looked very agitated.

"I asked him what happened and he said he wanted my car. I had a Fiesta at the time. He said they had left Mdina on foot and Attard was hiding in a room in the fields between Rabat and Attard. He told me he was out of breath as they had left their car at Saqqajja.

"At first I did not want to give him my car but he insisted and said I had to remember that I had sent them. I gave him the car and he returned about an hour later. I then took him to his mother's place in Psaila Street," Fenech said.

He recounted that Farrugia had told him Attard had stabbed the man twice but someone had turned up to help the victim.

"I asked him what they did with the knife and he said they had thrown it away in a field and he had told me that the knife had broke. I was in a hurry to get rid of him as he was involved in the stabbing and I did not want to be seen with him."

Fenech explained how he contacted the accused to inform him that the attack had been carried out and Calleja asked if the man had been killed. When the issue of payment was raised, the accused said he would not pay unless the victim was dead.

"He later called me and said 'they tickled him' and he did not die. I told him they did what they had to do and that I wanted the money to pass it on but he insisted he would not pay."

Attard insisted he should be paid but Calleja kept telling him not to expect any money.

"In the end I told Calleja I will inform the police and he said I would not do that. I then told him I have no alternative but to bring them to your door.

"He told me I was not keeping my word as he had asked me not to mention him with anyone and we had an argument about that," Fenech said.

Fenech said that at one point Calleja said he was going abroad and he started avoiding Attard and Farrugia and eventually lost contact with them.

The witness gave details about the meetings he eventually had with the prime minister on the case which led to the crime being solved.

Fenech insisted he was not in Mdina on the night of the stabbing. Had he been there he would have said so in the first place and he would still have been given the presidential pardon.

When Calleja was arrested, he had been confronted with him at the police headquarters and had told Calleja he had no alternative but to confess. However, the accused neither said yes nor no.

Under cross-examination, Fenech said he often received threats which he often ignored. He had received a threat very recently too.

Fenech said it was rather strange how Farrugia had said during the compilation of evidence that he (Fenech) had sent them to kill the prime minister's personal assistant but later changed his version and said Fenech had done it.

He also commented that it was curious that Nicholas Jensen had not singled him out on the day after the stabbing but had identified him as the man he had seen on the night of the stabbing years later and when the witness had shaved his hair, when he usually wore long hair.

Fenech said the accused had already commissioned someone else before him to carry out the crime and they had spoken about it.

"Cachia Caruana has every reason to see me in bad light and does not thank me for it but were it not for me he would be dead. Were it for the accused, Cachia Caruana does not exist anymore.

"Had I not sent Attard, who was always drunk, Meinrad Calleja would have brought an Italian who would have come with a pistol and a silencer and he would have killed him on the spot," Fenech said.

The trial continues this morning.

Deputy Attorney General Dr Silvio Camilleri and Senior Counsel to the Republic Dr Donatella Frendo Dimech are prosecuting.

Dr Manwel Mallia and Dr Ramona Frendo are appearing for Calleja.

Dr Tonio Azzopardi is representing the victim in parte civile.

The trial is presided by Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano.