Rania Boughatta, who was killed by a speeding Mercedes whose driver later tested positive for alcohol and cocaine was on the last day of her honeymoon in Malta, her widower testified on Thursday. 

The man, Nabil ben Soltana, accompanied in court by three female relatives and assisted by a French-speaking interpreter, recalled the fatal episode which took place on the last evening of the newlyweds’ four-day holiday back in November 2021. 

The couple had spent that Sunday, November 14, sightseeing around the island and were heading back to their rented apartment at St Paul’s Bay when the incident happened at around 8pm in Xemxija Hill.

He had parked their hired car and while Rania Boughatta, a 30-year-old Tunisian national, was putting her belongings inside a bag, he walked towards the nearby zebra crossing. 

He set out across the street, looking both ways to check oncoming traffic and spotted a vehicle at a certain distance. 

“The car was still far away and I stepped onto the zebra crossing,” explained ben Soltana. 

But when he was a few metres away from the other side of the road, he stopped, realising that the vehicle was speeding towards him. 

“I didn’t know exactly where my wife was. I stopped so that the driver would realise that there was someone crossing. Then I looked back and saw my wife crossing.”

But, at that point, he heard the car speeding ahead “at full engine force”.

Not knowing what to do, the witness recalled how he had watched while the car came “closer and closer, always in my direction”.

The driver appeared to take no action to prevent the incident. 

“He could have kept going or stopped,” said the witness.

“Did that mean that he [the driver] did not apply the brakes,” asked magistrate Astrid May Grima.

“No, never,” replied ben Soltana, going on to explain how the speeding car, a dark-coloured Mercedes model that he identified by the headlamps, edged closer, missing him “by a few centimetres”.

The driver swerved towards the opposite side of the narrow two-lane street where the witness’s wife stood, facing the vehicle, some 30 metres lengthwise away from her husband. 

“The driver had a final chance to hit the brakes or do something. I only had time to turn my head. I saw that he destroyed everything.”

Asked what he meant by “everything”, the man explained that the Mercedes had crashed into “at least three other cars”.

But he could not tell whether the driver first hit the victim and then the cars or vice versa. 

Following the crash, ben Soltana stood all alone. 

The Mercedes driver did not immediately get out of his car and, until then, the witness had not been able to see his face. 

But as he approached his wife who lay on the road, the man, whom he on Thursday identified in court as the accused, went close and checked the woman’s pulse.

The car was heading uphill in the direction of Mellieħa but after the collision ended up on the opposite lane. 

The bald man, whom ben Soltana saw together with other persons who stopped to help, was Wayne Buttigieg, a 43-year-old Mellieħa resident, who on Thursday pleaded not guilty to several charges stemming from the incident. 

He was charged with involuntary homicide, dangerous and reckless driving, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, driving at excessive speed, driving wrong way, and damaging four other vehicles. 

He was also charged with damaging a fence, apparently government property.

The Mercedes had been registered in his name since October 2020. 

Victim was dragged for several metres

George Frendo, a former police inspector stationed at Qawra, also testified about the sight when he reached Xemxija Hill that evening. 

A number of vehicles parked along that side of the hill were damaged. 

Next, a handbag, a shawl and tufts of hair were strewn on the road surface. 

Then he caught sight of the victim, motionless, after having been dragged along several metres by the vehicle upon impact. 

The woman had already been certified dead, explained Frendo. Her husband, in a state of shock, was taken to hospital.

The driver and two minors who happened to be passengers in the Mercedes at the time, were also taken to Mater Dei Hospital. 

Tests on urine and blood samples taken from the driver later confirmed that there were traces of alcohol and cocaine, the court was told. 

The case continues.

Inspector Matthew Galea prosecuted. Lawyer Josette Sultana is defence counsel. Lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb were parte civile, assisting the victim’s family.