A man will be charged on Wednesday evening with a murder committed in Gozo in January 2018, but police are still investigating whether he was a hired hitman.
In a crime conference, police spokesman Brandon Pisani told reporters that a 42-year-old Serbian man would be charged at the Gozo courts at 6pm.
The man, who has not yet been named, will face charges of having carried out the murder of Walid Salah Abdel Motaleb Mohammed, 42, an Egyptian.
Pisani said investigators had now established that the Serbian national was with the murder victim just hours before he was found dead in a remote field in Għarb on January 22, 2018.
Pisani, who was flanked by Homicide Unit chief Keith Arnaud and Inspector Bernard Charles Spiteri, who is responsible for Gozo, said that police had recently received fresh information from third parties and analysed further the CCTV footage that led them to arrest the suspect.
Pisani said the victim’s body had been found at 7.40am in a field in the San Dimitri area of Għarb.
The victim was found lying on the floor with two shotgun wounds, one on the left side of the neck and the other in the centre of his chest.
Two cartridges were found near the victim. In all, five cartridges were found in the field.
The murder weapon has not yet been located.
Pisani said CCTV camera footage was analysed in recent weeks and the victim was seen getting into a car in Republic Street, Victoria.
The police had found the car in October 2018, in the possession of third parties.
After a few days of fresh investigations, the police have now established that the Serbian suspect had been driving the car.
Pisani said the suspect had first been arrested over the murder on May 10, 2020. He was then placed on police bail.
Police are currently finalising interrogations before proceeding to charge the suspect.
“I am glad to say that another case has been solved by the homicide squad,” he said.
Asked whether the Serbian was believed to be a hitman and if the police had any idea who may have commissioned the murder, Pisani said investigations were ongoing and he could not divulge information on the matter.
Mohammed was married to a Gozitan and had two children. The couple were separated.
The victim, who worked as a plasterer, also has a pending court case over drug possession and trafficking.
Mohammed had spent time behind bars after being found guilty of threatening to throw acid at his partner’s face if she allowed his daughters to attend religion classes at school.