One of the alleged victims of a man facing two charges of attempted murder told a court today that the accused slipped after he tried to take the knife off his hands.
Abdirahman Saeed Ahmed, a 49-year-old Somali man who lives in Ħamrun, is accused of attempting to murder two Sudanese men – his friends – in an incident that took place in his home last Friday.
One of the men, 56-year-old Balzan resident Anwar Ahmed Iskander, sustained life-threatening injury, and is presently in a stable condition. 46-year-old Ali Eysa Ali, who lives with Mr Ahmed and a Chadian national, suffered injuries that were certified as slight save complications, and was released from hospital the following day.
Mr Ali was one of the witnesses in today’s sitting, and he recounted that on the day, the three men were drinking whisky at the home he shared with the accused.
At around 8:45pm, however, Mr Iskander wanted to go home. Mr Ali said that he told his friend that it was better if he stayed for the night, particularly since the next day was a public holiday, but the man insisted that he wanted to go.
Mr Iskander was putting on his shoes and getting ready to leave when Mr Ali went to his bed. But Mr Ali testified that he soon heard his friend screaming, and that when he went back, he saw Mr Iskander bleeding and Mr Ahmed holding a knife in his hand.
He said that he tried to take the knife away, but said that unfortunately, the accused slipped and hit him. During cross-examination by defence counsel Joe Ellis, he insisted that the accused did not deliberately stab him.
After the incident, the two Sudanese men went to the Ħamrun police station to file a report.
PC Antoine Guillaimier, who was on night duty at the station on the day of the incident, recounted seeing the two men enter the station with blood on their clothes.
An ambulance was called to take them to Mater Dei Hospital, and police immediately went to the address identified by the two men, where they found Mr Ahmed with a strong smell of alcohol on his breath.
When asked whether he knew what had happened, Mr Ahmed said that he did not, before he was asked to accompany the police to the station.
Inspector Robert Camilleri, who is prosecuting along with fellow inspector Edel Mary Camilleri, said that police officers tried to search for knives, but the knives that were found appeared to have been recently washed. However, one of the knives appeared to have red stains on its handle, and was sent for a forensic examination.
During questioning, Mr Ahmed insisted that he was asleep when the incident happened, even when confronted with the version of events provided by the two Sudanese men.
The defence is yet to request bail, with Dr Ellis stating that he was ready to wait until civilian witnesses were heard. Mr Iskander is still in hospital.