A Gozo resident testified about a series of threatening phone calls he had allegedly received from a man who was subsequently murdered, warning him to steer clear of his partner.

The witness was testifying in ongoing criminal proceedings against Aleksandr Stojanovic, a 42-year-old Serb from Safi who currently stands charged with the 2018 murder of Egyptian Walid Salah Abdel Motaleb Mohammed.

The lifeless body of the father of two was found four years ago on January 15 in a remote field in Għarb, Gozo. 

He was discovered lying in a pool of blood after allegedly being shot at close range.

CCTV footage gathered by investigators at the time of the alleged murder, showed the victim getting into a car at Victoria close to midnight, hours before the gruesome discovery in the fields close to the San Dimitri chapel in rural Għarb.

When proceedings continued on Friday before the Gozo courts, a man, who said that he had been a drug user since aged 12, testified about a call he had received from Walid, warning him to steer clear of his Gozitan partner. 

The call had come from a number that was not familiar and was not saved on his contact list, but the caller had identified himself as Walid, explained the witness. 

A succession of calls followed, with the caller warning him to stay away from Gozo and threatening to go for him armed with a knife if he approached his partner, the witness went on.

He knew Walid’s partner because she happened to be a friend of his girlfriend and would occasionally go out with the couple, but he had never told her about the threatening phone calls.

Asked why he had not reported the matter to the police, the witness said that he did not wish to cause matters to escalate any further.

But it was only after the murder that he got to know about Walid’s notoriety in Gozo, the witness claimed.

Although he frequently used to come across Walid at the apartment block where he himself lived in Gozo, he was not aware that the other man lived there with his partner.

Under further cross-examination by defence lawyer Francesca Zarb the witness admitted that he had been a drug user since the age of 12, but refused to answer questions about his circle of friends at the time.

Although he was jobless back then, the witness said that he still managed to pay rent and buy drugs.

Asked whether Mohammed’s number was saved on his contacts list, the witness replied in the negative saying that he sometimes got calls from unknown numbers as well as occasional calls from the police.

During an earlier sitting in the compilation of evidence, a former flatmate of Stojanovic testified that early in 2018 the accused had disappeared for four days.

When he returned, he had told his friend that he had major problems, subsequently admitting that he had shot a man in Gozo. 

The case presided over by magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, continues in February.

Superintendent Keith Arnaud and Inspector Bernard Charles Spiteri are prosecuting, assisted by AG lawyers Anthony Vella and Etienne Savona.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb are defence counsel.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi is representing the victim’s family.