Sentence reduced on appeal

A Sta Lucija man who was jailed for six years for trying to kill a colleague by running him over has had his sentence reduced to a two-year jail term suspended for four years.

Elvin Abela, 25, had originally been jailed for six years after he pleaded guilty, during what was to be the beginning of his trial by jury, to the attempted murder of George Mangion in the car park of CRC Components Limited (where they both worked), in the Marsa industrial estate on October 9, 2002.

However Abela, assisted by Dr Joseph Giglio, appealed claiming the punishment was excessive and the Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Chief Justice Vincent DeGaetano, Mr Justice Joseph Filletti and Mr Justice David Scicluna, upheld the appeal and reduced the jail term to a suspended jail term.

On handing down judgment, the appeal court noted that, despite recognising the particularity of the case, the first court had considered handing down a suspended jail term but had not done so because it believed that the law did not allow it.

However, the appeal court heard how the incident had been provoked and ruled that in light of "special and exceptional reasons", that is the circumstances of the case, a suspended jail term was permissible by law.

Although attempted murder was a very serious offence that rarely merited the application of article 21 of the Criminal Code, which allows for a punishment below the minimum, in this case the article was applicable.

Moreover, the court noted that during an appeal sitting, Mangion testified that he was surprised that Abela had been jailed for six years for what he considered to be "a simple fight".