Two Gozitan brothers were each fined Lm300, while a third brother was jailed for 13 months, suspended for two years, after they were found guilty of involvement in a fight that broke out in Victoria in August 2002 during which a man was seriously injured.

The incident took place in August 2002 when the three brothers, Mario Azzopardi, 30, Martin Azzopardi, 32 and 28-year-old John Azzopardi, all from Victoria, beat up Joseph Portelli, from Nadur, a hawker who had a stand at it-Tokk in Victoria square.

The court heard how the fight occurred at the market, where both Mr Portelli and Mario Azzopardi work. The victim had testified that he had been savagely attacked by the three brothers for no apparent reason. He said was punched and kicked repeatedly, even after falling to the ground.

The court heard how, at one point during the fight, after he had fallen to the ground, John and Martin Azzopardi had stopped hitting him but Mario Azzopardi had continued to hit him on the head.

Handing down her judgement, magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera said that she felt the testimony of the witnesses produced by the prosecution was more credible than the version of the three accused. The magistrate took into consideration the fact that Martin and John Azzopardi both had clean police records, whereas Mario Azzopardi had 13 previous convictions.

She therefore fined John and Martin Azzopardi Lm300 each and jailed Mario Azzopardi for 13 months, suspended for two years.