A Valletta couple testified on Wednesday about how they were woken up on a Saturday morning in August by two armed aggressors who burst into their bedroom demanding “gold”.

Judith Bakoush and her partner Morat Abdikabir Mohammed, who also stand accused of drug trafficking in separate proceedings, were testifying about a violent robbery they were victims to a few weeks before their arrest. 

Adnan Saed, a 29-year-old Libyan national, is pleading not guilty to aggravated theft, slightly injuring Bakoush’s partner, attempted grievous bodily harm and carrying a knife without a police licence.

Adnan is also facing charges over a separate incident that took place on August 10 at Sliema’s Qui-Si-Sana area. 

The Valletta couple told the court that they first heard their friend Ersilia Gauci scream downstairs.

Two men, one masked, then burst into their bedroom, armed with knives and approached Morat.

One of them was a certain “Ramzi”, while the other was Adnan, identified by the witness as the accused. 

Adnan was wielding an axe and hit Morat on the chest with its wooden handle, recalled Bakoush, then tried to force Morat into the bathroom.

Bakoush testified that she tried to pull the aggressor away,  but he grabbed her face and told her he didn't intend to hurt her.

At that point, she realised that the masked aggressor was Saed, who she knew. 

“He tried to take him to the bathroom to stab him in there,” she added.

“Where’s the gold,” Adnan asked.

“I sold it,” Bakoush recalled telling the accused.

“He was a friend of ours, a very good friend. Then I don’t know what happened,” went on the witness.

The two intruders then kicked Morat down the stairs, Bakoush testified, blood dripping from the wound on his chest. 

His €2,000 gold chain fell off as he was kicked down.

Violence spilled into the street

Bakoush told the court that Adnan and Ramzi then tried to smash Ersilia's windscreen as she sought to get away with the wounded Morat in the passenger seat. 

Bakoush grabbed a metal rod and began to hit the alleged aggressors until they got away in a Toyota Vitz.

She had also spotted Ramzi’s Colombian girlfriend in the car, she said. 

As her friend drove Morat to the Floriana health centre, the aggressors returned twice.

“There was cash, but they came to kill him,” Bakoush insisted. 

Under cross-examination, the witness said that she had been living at the Valletta premises for eight years with her partner and seven-year-old son, who was not present that day.

She said that along with the gold, there was a wallet containing €5,000 of cash which belonged to the couple. 

“What does your husband do,” asked defence lawyer Charles Mercieca.

“I won’t reply, she retorted. 

“What about the gold,” went on the defence.

“It’s mine and my husband’s,” said Bakoush. 

As the lawyer’s questions turned to the raids and the drugs seized by the police from the couple’s home weeks after the aggression, Magistrate Doreen Clarke pointed out that drugs did not feature in the charges concerning Adnan. 

Asked about Ersilia, Bakoush said that the woman was a “long-time family friend” who ran a shop and Bakoush used to go to her to cash her social benefits cheques.

No effective cross-examination

Pressed further on that issue, Bakoush refused to reply, saying “now you’re asking too much detail.”

The court pointed out that the witness had the right to avoid possibly self-incriminating questions. 

As further questions were met with no reply, the defence minuted that it could not make an effective cross-examination while the witness was still facing separate criminal proceedings.

Morat followed at the witness stand, recalling the violent incident.

He described Adnan as a "friend"and said the two had fallen out over the transfer of a motorcycle. 

“He and Ramzi came for me,” testified Morat, describing the assault.

As the struggle spilled onto the street, he called out to Bakoush’s friend “Alison” and got into her car.

“I lost consciousness and told her I was going to die,” he said.

But Adnan tried to block the driver by striking her car windscreen with a knife.

“I told her to drive on and she took me to the Floriana polyclinic.”

He was later taken by ambulance to Mater Dei.

Morat testified that he received a call from Ramzi just as he arrived to receive medical treatment, offering him money to "end the matter there".   

But Morat would not have that.

'I would have been killed'

“Had I not managed to get away I would have been killed like that Arab at Ħamrun,” the witness concluded, referring to the murder of an Libyan that Ramzi was charged with in 2018. 

Adnan’s lawyers made another request for bail, which the prosecution objected to. 

When he knew that police were searching for him, he went into hiding and then tried to get away when finally tracked down, explained prosecuting Inspector Stephen Gulia.

Moreover, Ramzi was still wanted, the court was told.

The defence rebutted that the accused could not be detained just because the State lacked the means to monitor him.

Moreover, Adnan had a fixed address and a lease agreement to account for that. 

The court turned down the bail request. The case continues in October.

Inspectors Lydon Zammit and Jonathan Ransley also prosecuted. Lawyer Gianluca Caruana Curran was also defence counsel. 

Lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb appeared parte civile.