Earlier at yesterday’s sitting Inspector Frans Micallef had said that on 26 June 2002, he typed out Illiya Vukadinovic’s statement, in which he admitted beating Joseph Drago because he made sexual advances on him.
Mr Drago was found dead under the pavement on the Strand, Sliema.
When the accused testified, he denied ever making a statement and said he had spent three hours in Insp. Micallef’s office mostly staring. Vukadinovic said he did somehow say the things in the statement presented in court, but claimed they were taken out of context. He said this was because Insp. Micallef did not write the questions.
The statement claimed the Yugoslav man had turned himself in to the police and admitted the crime, but Vukadinovic said he had only gone to the police station to report his lost passport and to claim he had been attacked the night before.
In his testimony, the accused gave the version of events he believed was true and correct. He said a man approached him
as he was walking home along
the coast.
“He tried to speak to me, but I did not understand him,” Vukadinovic said. “He then started putting his hands all over me – on my shoulders, around my waist,” he said. “Nothing like this had ever happened before. It was late, dark and this man was trying to tell me something I could not understand.
“Mr Drago then became more insistent in his advances on me,” the accused continued. “I took his hand off me and made a sound indicating to him to go away.”
He said they were both still walking as this occurred. “Mr Drago ran towards a fisherman by the sea and this man tried
to tell me something I could
not understand.”
This fisherman was identified as Alfred Borg, who testified at Monday’s sitting. Vukadinovic said Mr Borg “did not show any signs of aggression but Mr Drago got really mad”.
“As I turned towards Mr Drago, I heard steps behind me,” said Vukadinovic. “I turned around and saw the fisherman pulling a knife on me.”
The accused said that at this point, there was some fighting and pushing. He said both Mr Borg and Mr Drago were standing as he ran away. Prosecuting officer, senior counsel to the Republic Mark Said, said the accused did not mention lifting a finger on Mr Drago.
During the cross examination, Vukadinovic said he did not deny giving a punch, but he said the actual fight lasted a total of 15 seconds. He said he did see blood on Mr Drago’s face.
He suggested that Mr Drago’s body may have been placed in the position it was found, exactly under the pavement.
The statement the accused claimed he never made was read out in court earlier at yesterday’s sitting.
“I did not intend to kill that man, I only wanted to punish him for trying to touch me. I am not a homosexual,” Vukadinovic said in the statement. It continued by saying he beat Mr Drago up because he was drunk and the victim had tried to touch his sexual organs, which made him angry and nervous.
After an hour-and-a-half of questioning, the accused released a statement to police, Insp. Frans Micallef said. The statement recounted what had happened that day and gave a detailed account of exactly how the incident occurred. Prosecuting officer Mark Said read the statement out in court yesterday.
As mentioned before, the accused denied making this statement during his testimony. “The word statement was never mentioned at the police station,” he said.
According to the statement, the accused had said, “I pounced on him and aimed to punch him in the face. I did not intend to kill him. I was drunk, nervous, angry and offended by the man’s behaviour. I am not a homosexual.”
The statement continued by saying that after the accused threw the first punch, Mr Drago went to hide behind a bench. Vukadinovic said he reached over and grabbed Mr Drago. “I held him from the left shoulder, with my left hand, and punched him three times with my right hand,” the statement continued.
He said he was aiming at the victim’s head. He knew he had hit him, because he saw blood, but he did not know where the blows had landed. “As Mr Drago fell, I kicked him twice, once in the shoulder and once in the face,” the accused had said.
Vukadinovic had said the victim was leaning on his left elbow as he walked away. He said he believed the incident happened at about 2am. He was not sure what Mr Drago told him before he assaulted him, but he was sure it was something sexual.
The accused had said he only wanted to punish Mr Drago for what he tried to do to him. He did not mean to kill him.
Insp. Micallef said when the accused had gone to the St Julian’s police station he had said he would rather have been jailed than go back to his country. Vukadinovic had said his visa had expired and he had overstayed.
When the police told him this was not a crime, he admitted he had beaten a man up in Sliema earlier that morning. Vukadinovic was then transferred to the Sliema station.
Insp. Micallef said the accused told him, “I told you that, prove it if you are capable.” He went on to say that Vukadinovic later released the statement described above.
During the cross-examination, defence attorney Dr Malcolm Mifsud said that when Vukadinovic went to the police station, he had actually been trying to say he had lost his passport during the incident in Sliema that morning.
During his testimony, Insp. Micallef said the accused was being difficult and did not want to cooperate.
Dr Mifsud said Vukadinovic was not being difficult but was in fact trying to communicate. “Did you refuse to listen and go off at a tangent, asking my client whether he was a Syrian illegal immigrant?” he asked the inspector. The inspector denied these allegations and said there were no hiccups in the interrogation. The statement read out in court, made by Vukadinovic seemed to be free-flowing. Actually the inspector had posed questions to the accused but did not write them down. “I chose to write only what the accused said,” Insp. Micallef said.
Insp. Silvio Valletta also took the stand yesterday and explained what the accused had told him. His version corroborated Insp. Micallef’s, as well as the version given in the statement made by the accused himself. Insp. Valletta also said Dr Mario Scerri concluded the accused was suffering from what is known as a boxer’s fracture. Vukadinovic’s right hand was swollen. The accused said he had punched Mr Drago because he had tried to touch him sexually.
Robert Bonett was another eyewitness called by the prosecution at yesterday’s sitting. The man said he was jogging in Sliema in the early hours of 26 June 2002. He said that he saw the initial scuffle between the accused and the victim. This happened next to Alfred Borg, a man who was fishing at the time. In fact Mr Borg testified at an earlier sitting and said that he had seen Vukadinovic running after Joseph Drago.
Mr Bonett said he dragged the Yugoslav man away and they started jogging together towards Gzira. “The foreigner told me Mr Drago tried to sexually abuse him,” the witness said. The accused was very angry about this and did not stop talking about it as they jogged together. “He only jogged with me for a short way, then he turned and ran back in the direction we had come from,” he said. The jogger said a little while later he heard shouting. He went back to where the fisherman had been because he said he was afraid Vukadinovic was beating Mr Borg, who Mr Bonett said he knew was unwell.
He said when he went back near the men, Mr Drago was on the ground and Mr Borg had told him the accused had run away. Mr Bonett said he threw a bucket of water on Mr Drago.
When the men saw Drago did not react, they concluded he was dead and went home. “I was afraid,” said Mr Bonett when asked why he did not approach police.
In his testimony, the accused claimed Mr Bonett was never there and the events he described had never happened. The prosecution had no more witnesses to call to the stand. This was when the accused testified and denied making the statement to police. Senior counsel to the Republic Dr Mark Said is leading the prosecution while Dr Malcolm Mifsud is appearing for the accused.
The court was presided over by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono. The trial continues today.