Victim believes language barrier led to incident

A Tunisian man believed that an Msida shopowner slit his neck with a penknife on Sunday night because he could not communicate with him in Maltese, a court heard yesterday.

"I stopped by an Msida shop to buy a bun and a drink and as I can only speak in Arabic and Italian I addressed the shopowner in those languages. However he didn`t understand either of the languages and asked me to speak in Maltese," Safi Mouldi Ben Mustafa said.

"I think he got angry at me for not complying with his request because he crossed the road, went into another shop and when he came back he hit me in the neck with a pen knife. When I saw him so angry I concluded that he didn`t like Arabs."

Mustafa, 35, testified before Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera in the arraignment of Emmanuel Cuschieri, 25, of Msida. He identified Cuschieri as the shopowner who stabbed him.

Cuschieri pleaded not guilty of assaulting and disfiguring Mustafa by cutting his neck with a pointed instrument, slightly injuring him, keeping and carrying a pointed instrument without a licence and breaching the peace in Msida on Monday at about 1 a.m.

The Tunisian is himself being accused of assaulting and slightly injuring Cuschieri.

Mustafa, with one hand constantly pressed against a visible cut on the right side of his neck, explained that he had to hold the cut because it hurt to move his neck.

He said that after Cuschieri crossed the road to go into another shop, he returned with a penknife in one hand and a bunch of keys in the other.

"The accident happened on the road outside the shop. I did not retaliate in any way but ran away. He followed me for about 200 metres and then he stopped. I had blood gushing out of my neck and so I ran into the road to ask for help. A police car stopped to help me," he said.

Under cross-examination, Mustafa denied following Cuschieri when the latter walked across the road. He also denied banging on the shop window and threatening to break it. He insisted he did not provoke Cuschieri.

In a separate arraignment, Mustafa pleaded not guilty to assaulting and slightly injuring Cuschieri, breaching the peace and being in Malta without leave by the immigration authorities.

He was denied bail at this stage of the court proceedings.

The cases continues.

Police Inspectors Michael Mallia, Stephen Gatt and Neville Xuereb prosecuted.

Dr Anglu Farrugia appeared for Cuschieri.

Dr Martin Fenech was appointed legal aid for Mustafa.