Updated 8.30pm

A cab driver who drove three people from Żebbuġ to Żurrieq, where they allegedly robbed a jeweller and beat him up, described a "weird feeling" that crept over him during that trip. 

The Greek national took the witness stand on Friday when proceedings continued against Donna Borg Sciberras, 29, Mohamed Anas Boualam, 37 and Zuhair Hadoumi, 26, who are pleading not guilty to that violent robbery that left jeweller Joseph Carabott “worse than dead”.

The witness, a self-employed taxi driver, identified all three accused as the passengers he picked up from a  Żebbuġ residence on August 25 evening. They booked the ride through Bolt. 

He picked them up shortly after 6pm and dropped them off close to the Żurrieq church, on Dun Ġużepp Zammit Street, at 6.36pm. 

During that ride, Borg Sciberras sat next to him, while the men sat at the back. 

“They spoke another language. So I didn't understand what they were saying,” explained the driver, adding he did recall the woman telling him they were headed to Żurrieq to pick up her seven-year-old son. 

“But I had mixed feelings… The way the two gentlemen at the back were looking at me made me feel weird.” 

Shortly after that trip, he received an “urgent” call from the police headquarters in Floriana. The investigating officer there explained that the police were working on a “really, really serious crime” and asked him for all the details he could supply about that trip. 

The driver told them all he knew, also providing footage from his dashcam which proved important in helping the police identify two of the suspects: Borg Sciberras and Anas. 

The third suspect had still not been identified, even though his face was visible on the footage, including that retrieved from the robbery scene and the suspects’ pick-up point at Blue Grotto Avenue. 

The following Sunday, police officers looking through CCTV footage identified the third suspect as Hadoumi. His address was traced to a residence in Manuel Dimech Street, Sliema. 

That was where police rounded up and arrested the suspect trio, said Inspector Jonathan Cassar from the Drug Squad. 

When police knocked at the door of the residence, they suddenly heard a glass drop and footsteps.

A police sergeant from the Criminal Investigation Department, who had assisted in the arrests, told court they had forced their way in. 

The officers headed upstairs onto the roof where they caught sight of two men running across the rooftops of neighbouring properties. 

As they gave chase, something caught the sergeant’s attention and he found Borg Sciberras hiding on the roof. 

He handed over her arrest to a colleague and proceeded to assist the other officers in chasing the two male suspects. They were tracked down inside an abandoned property whose rooftop door was open. 

The police searched Hadoumi's property. In one room on the first floor, they found two black bags and a mobile phone.

Another bag on a bedside table contained a pouch, a gold cross, a small price tag, another mobile phone and documents. The police also found cash and another bag containing two watches. 

They discovered a black bag behind some pieces of wood tucked in the space below the stairs leading to the roof. That bag appeared to be the same one that Borg Sciberras was carrying when she walked out of the Żurrieq jewellery shop. 

The bag was full of gold items. 

Another officer from the Major Crimes Unit testified about his involvement in the search at the  Żebbuġ residence: the point of departure and of return of the suspects on the day of the robbery.  

The suspects were not present when the police arrived at the house, but an Egyptian man who rented a room at the house explained that Anas was his housemate. 

The man led the officers to his room where they found cannabis and ecstasy pills. 

The man is currently facing separate drug-related charges and is under preventive arrest. 

Inside the room shared by Anas and Borg Sciberras, besides a small white price tag, a pair of studded earrings and a mobile phone lying on the bed, the police also found a grey zip-up jacket with black and white sleeves. 

It matched the one that Borg Sciberras had put on after the robbery as she left Blue Grotto Avenue in another cab, together with her alleged accomplices. 

That jacket, along with other items seized from the  Żebbuġ property, were exhibited as evidence.

One of those items was a blue file, labeled ‘Anas,’ which contained the accused’s birth certificate, payslips, vehicle documents and other personal papers. 

Following the trio’s arrests, Hadoumi led police to a shaft inside the Żebbuġ residence where he had disposed of a knife.

Its handle had been used to strike the victim during the robbery. 

Anas had been carrying another knife but Hadoumi did not know anything about its whereabouts. 

He also told police that after the robbery they had changed their clothes and put them in garbage bags opposite the house. 

The bags were not there when police searched for them.

The case, presided over by Magistrate Ian Farrugia, continues.

AG lawyer Kaylie Bonett prosecuted together with inspectors Shaun Pawney and Jonathan Cassar.

Lawyers Mark Mifsud Cutajar, Maria Karlsson and Brandon Kirk Muscat were defence counsel.

Lawyers Stephen Tonna Lowell and Ana Thomas appeared parte civile.