A jury yesterday began to hear evidence presented against 22-year-old Illiya Vukadinovic. The accused turned himself in to the police later that day.

In light of this, prosecuting officer Mark Said explained that the focus of the trial will be the accused’s intention, not whether it was he who actually committed the crime.

It was a “ferocious, savage assault on Mr Drago by the accused,” said Dr Said. This is the reason he gave for the Yugoslav being charged with willful homicide.

Vukadinovic is being accused of intentionally killing Mr Drago at around 4.15am on 26 June 2002. The bill of indictment claimed that the man was trying to find any way of staying in Malta, even if it meant committing a crime. “He wished for anything to force the Maltese authorities to keep him here.”

The bill went on to say the victim, who was a court employee, was known to have devious sexual tendencies. “He tried to strike a friendly chat” with the accused who “realised Mr Drago was somehow trying to entice him into some kind of intimate relationship”.

The bill said “Vukadinovic took the opportunity to attack and beat up Mr Drago under the pretext that the latter was making sexual advances on him”.

This was not true, the bill claimed. It said the accused simply wanted to commit a crime and aimed at “inventing circumstances to limit the crime’s gravity and fatality”.

With the intent to jeopardise Mr Drago’s life, Vukadinovic “pounced on his head” and proceeded to hit him all over his body. The accused left the man for dead and walked back home, the bill continued. Vukadinovic turned himself in later that day, after going home and sleeping for a few hours.

Mr Drago died as a result of Vukadinovic’s assault.

A man who was fishing at the site of the incident testified at yesterday’s sitting. Alfred Borg said that as he was fishing he heard two people running in his direction. A foreigner was running after a Maltese man, he said. The Maltese man was the victim.

“They wanted to fight but I tried to keep them apart,” said the witness. “My friend Bobby came to help me and then they went their separate ways,” the man continued.

Mr Borg said that after about 15 minutes the two men came back, the foreigner was still running after Mr Drago and he proceeded to trip him up. The foreign man kicked the victim as he lay on the ground, the witness said.

After kicking him, the foreigner left Mr Drago on the ground and walked away, Mr Borg. After the incident, Mr Borg said he was afraid. He packed up his things and walked away. He did not speak to the police at that time.

The witness said there were people walking in the area but no one stopped to help.

Court appointed experts, scene of crime officers, police sergeants and inspectors also testified at yesterday’s sitting to explain their involvement in this case.

Marie Therese Camilleri Podesta’ and Ali Salfras performed the autopsy and confirmed that Mr Drago died as a result of a skull fracture, internal cranial haemorrhage and multiple incidents of blunt trauma.

It was the collection of injuries that killed him but the doctors explained the haemorrhage and skull fracture were the most serious.

Dr Camilleri Podesta’ said the victim had an imprint of the pattern of the ground on his forehead. This shows that some sort of pressure or force exerted, or else the pattern would not have been imprinted.

“The victim had so many blows that I thought he might have been run over by a car,” said Dr Mario Scerri in his testimony. He also said the blows must have been delivered by someone strong, who might have even done some wrestling. The doctor said he had come to these conclusions before he met the accused.

Blood-stained tissues found near Mr Drago’s body may indicate that someone had stopped to help the man when he was dying, or when he was almost dead. This is further supported by the fact that the corpse was wet, continued Dr Scerri.

In fact, Mr Borg’s testimony corroborates this. He said he had thrown water on the victim to try to wake him up.

The doctor claimed the victim did not offer any resistance to Vukadinovic’s attack. The accused only had a slight swelling on his right hand. The young man had no fresh lesions, Dr Scerri stated.

The court was presided over by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono. Senior counsel to the Republic Mark Said is leading the prosecution while Dr Malcolm Mifsud is appearing for the accused.

The trial continues this morning when more testimonies will be heard.