Aimen Said Giali El Baden was yesterday jailed for 25 years after jurors unanimously found him guilty of murdering hairstylist Alfie Rizzo in his Gzira salon four years ago.

The unanimous verdict, which forensic police historian Eddie Attard described as "very rare", was read out in court after three-and-a-half hours of deliberations.

When the foreman read out the verdict, 21-year-old Libyan El-Baden remained outwardly composed. He reacted only by rubbing his face with both hands.

Jurors also found him guilty of stealing less than Lm100 and possessing a knife without a licence, by the same vote. They had been sequestered for 12 days.

After the verdict was read out, defence lawyer Dr Joseph Mifsud called on the judge to note that jurors found El-Baden guilty of murder as laid down in the bill of indictment, that is, in circumstances of a sexual adventure that went wrong.

He also noted that El-Baden was 17-and-a-half-years old at the time of the commission of the crime and that, being a foreigner, imprisonment in Malta was harder because he was away from his family.

(The law lays down that the maximum jail term for murder is life imprisonment but the term is reduced by a grade or two if the person is under 18.)

The maximum El-Baden was facing, once life imprisonment was reduced by a grade, was 30 years and nine months imprisonment. The minimum was seven years and a month imprisonment.)

Assistant Attorney General Anthony Barbara, prosecuting, said that if there ever was a case that deserved the maximum punishment this was it.

He said the right message had to be transmitted: that society does not allow foreigners to think they can murder Maltese nationals and have their punishment reduced because they were not in their family`s vicinity.

He also asked the judge to consider the trauma Rizzo must have gone through while he was bleeding to death and to consider the emotional and financial trauma that the victim`s family went through.

The prosecution then called Ronald Scerri, Rizzo`s son-in-law, to the witness stand. He said that Rizzo`s murder had changed the life of the whole family who relived his death every single day.

Sentencing took place about 40 minutes later. On handing down judgment, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono said that El-Baden was under 18 when he committed the crime and had a clean criminal record.

He noted the unanimous guilty vote and the gravity of the case and ordered El-Baden to pay Lm1,198, which represent half of the costs incurred by the court during the compilation of evidence. This had to be paid within two months.

The judge ordered that the time El-Baden spent in preventive custody be reduced from the jail term.

This is the second time that El-Baden has been jailed in Malta.

On December 6, 2000, he had been jailed for seven years by the Magistrates` Court for escaping from the prison, threatening and assaulting two prison wardens, holding them against their will and possessing a knife without a licence.

He had escaped with another three inmates on March 29, 2000 and all four men were recaptured in Ghajn Tuffieha 36 hours later.

He had appealed the Magistrates` Court`s judgment and the appeal is still pending.

The last unanimous guilty vote in a trial by jury involving murder was given on January 18, 1977, Mr Attard, the author of the book Delitti F`Malta, said.

After a week-long trial Emanuel Xuereb, then aged 30, of Birkirkara, had been found unanimously guilty of murdering 22-year-old Francis Gili by shooting him in Archbishop Street, Valletta, on February 10, 1975.