A magistrate has been asked to investigate a husband’s alleged plot to have his wife killed.

In documents filed in court on Friday, the woman claims to have discovered that her husband was planning to have her assassinated as the two underwent separation proceedings.

The documents, filed by legal procurator Peter Paul Zammit, detail how the “frightened and worried” woman discovered that her husband had approached an Azeri man, understood to be one of his employees, to help contract a hitman.

To support her claims, the woman supplied Magistrate Ian Farrugia with two video recordings of the foreign man allegedly recounting conversations he had with the woman’s estranged husband.

In the recordings, the man claims to have been offered a sum of money to engage an assassin from his home country.

The hitman was meant to kill the woman and then flee the country.

In the video, the Azeri claims he had become close to the husband who opened up to him about trouble he was having with his wife.

The husband had wanted to get rid of the woman and was willing to pay handsomely to have this done, the Azeri says.

The woman is also alleging that a concealed camera and an audio recording device were placed in her apartment in the months before she was approached by the foreign man. The devices and accompanying photos were submitted as part of the request for a magisterial inquiry.

The matter is already being investigated by the police after the woman filed a lengthy police report last year.

Sources told Times of Malta that the couple have a history of domestic issues stretching back several years. 

The request for a magisterial inquiry, calls on the courts to preserve any evidence and to have the foreign national brought to Malta to testify.

The alleged crimes that the woman is claiming her estranged husband committed carry a prison sentence in excess of 20 years, the court documents conclude.