Two men have been jailed for 42 months between them after pleading guilty to having attacked and seriously injured a man while he was jogging on the Sliema front in June last year.

The two attackers, Albanian nationals Xhovano Ndoci, 23, and Agostin Marku, 23, were jailed for 20 months and 22 months respectively after they filed an admission at the end of the compilation of evidence against them.

Magistrate Victor Axiak also fined them €116 each, ordered them to pay court expenses and issued a restraining order in favour of the victim, against a €7,000 fine in default. 

The two were arrested shortly after the June 2022 assault, when a fellow jogger chased them down and pinned them to the ground. 

They subsequently told the police that they had been commissioned to carry out the attack.

Police have said that Matthew Joseph Schembri was the "brains" behind the unprovoked assault. The jogger who was assaulted is the father of Schembri's ex-wife.

Schembri, who is facing separate criminal proceedings for involuntary homicide as one of the developers behind a Corradino Industrial Estate collapse that killed 20-year-old Jean Paul Sofia, was initially arraigned along with Ndoci and Marku. 

After the two Albanian men changed their plea to guilty, the prosecution requested a separation of judgment so that the court could proceed with sentencing the two men while the case against Schembri continues separately.

Lawyer Dean Hili was defence counsel to Ndoci while layer Charles Mercieca represented Marku. Lawyer Matthew Xuereb appeared parte civile for the victim.