Prosecutors have complained of being subjected to ‘undue pressure,’ after defence lawyers repeated a demand for evidence about the character of the man who was murdered in 2022.

The complaint came at the end of Thursday’s sitting in the compilation of evidence against the three Romanian men accused of stabbing fellow Romanian Josef Rivas to death in Paceville in December 2022. 

Ilie Constantin, Ionut Iulian Tanase, and Dan-Andrei Tanase are charged with having murdered Rivas. He died at Mater Dei Hospital shortly after being stabbed 28 times in under two minutes on December 5, 2022. 

The defendants are denying the charges. A number of witnesses testified before Magistrate Astrid May Grima today.

Rivas died of blood loss caused by over 20 stab wounds - forensic experts

Court-appointed forensic expert Dr. Mario Scerri, who had examined both the murdered man and the suspects, told the court that Rivas had arrived at Mater Dei in a critical condition. Lacerations to his chest were noted, together with many stab wounds caused by a pointed instrument with a single cutting edge. Rivas’ cause of death was blood loss, said the expert.

The defendants also had injuries, he said, which could have been defensive in nature. Tanase had abrasions on his elbows and one of his fingertips had been cut off.

Constantin, who was examined in hospital, had a cut on his abdomen on his side that had not penetrated the abdominal cavity, as well as bruising and cuts to his hands. Tanase only had slight injuries, said Scerri.

He concluded that the injuries had all been caused by an edged weapon, but could not determine, from the wounds, who had been wielding it.

Pathologists David Pisani and Ali Safraz who had conducted the autopsy on Rivas’ body on 7 December 2022, were next to give evidence.

The cause of death was established to be hypovolemic shock from blood loss, said the pathologists, who testified together. Of the many stab wounds, three had been fatal - a wound to the left side of Rivas’ chest had penetrated the chest wall and the pericardium of the heart. Another had penetrated his abdomen and a third had pierced his small intestine.

Police officers describe murder scene and subsequent investigation

The court also heard testimony from a number of police officers who had participated in the investigation immediately after the murder. 

Two Rapid Intervention Unit (RIU) sergeants who had assisted in a search conducted at a St Julians apartment said they had found the door to the common area open and had made their way inside.

The officers had knocked on all the doors in the complex. Two weren’t opened and were subsequently forced open by the police. A woman was found inside one of the apartments but no arrests were made.

Next to testify was a police constable from the RIU who had responded to a report of a stabbing and escorted an ambulance to the scene of the murder. He told the court that the victim was on the ground, bleeding heavily from a wound on his back. He described the person on the grounds as male, tall, in his 30s and probably not Maltese.

The man did not speak while being administered first aid, he said.

Another police constable, who had assisted the previous witness gave a similar account, but described finding Rivas as sitting on the pavement, unresponsive and bleeding heavily.

An officer from the St. Julians Police station testified to having received a report about a serious argument in Ross Street, Paceville. He had arrived at the scene after Rivas had been taken away in an ambulance, and recalled seeing a lot of blood on the ground. 

While at the scene he was informed that the victim had died and so a homicide investigation was triggered and a court-appointed expert soon arrived to gather CCTV footage of the area.

The next morning, he said, he was informed that the three suspects had turned themselves in at the police station overnight.

CCTV footage taken from Paceville showed the three suspects, one of whom seemed to have a knife hidden up his jacket sleeve, chasing the victim towards Burger King. 

More CCTV footage from the block of flats in St. Julians that had been searched by the police showed three women exiting the apartment and getting into a taxi, he said.

The Police had searched the apartment, in Tanase’s presence. They had noted blood stains in the corridor of the common areas and a lot of blood in the kitchen and the bathroom.

Defence demands evidence about victim’s criminal background 

One of the defence lawyers representing the men, Franco Debono, dictated a note in court, stressing that Dr. Scerri had “said that there were defensive wounds,” and that the dynamics of the case “also pointed in this direction.”

He was corrected by the magistrate who pointed out that the expert had said that they “might have been defensive wounds…Dr. Scerri was not at the scene when the incident happened. He presented his report about what he found and what might have happened,” said the court.

Making reference to the defence’s prior submissions in previous sittings, Debono said it was “astonishing” that none of the witnesses brought by the prosecution had testified about the character of the victim.

“He was convicted for murder and had been involved in a plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham, but after several months of hearing evidence, this blessed testimony is still not present in these proceedings,” complained the lawyer.

This, Debono explained, was affecting the defence’s ability to request bail. “If a person is saying he was defending himself, whether he was defending himself from a weak and retiring person or something else makes a difference.”

The lawyer dictated a note on this point, asking the court to make the necessary pronouncements to ensure that this evidence was preserved as soon as possible.

Prosecutor Darlene Grima replied that the prosecution was still waiting for the requested evidence to be sent from abroad and would exhibit it as soon as it was in its possession. This had also been explained by Police Inspector Kurt Zahra, in the last sitting, Grima pointed out.

She formally objected to what she described as “the undue pressure being placed on the prosecution by the defence,” in this regard.

The case was adjourned and will continue later this month.

Inspectors Kurt Zahra and Brian Xuereb are prosecuting. Lawyers Kaylie Bonnett and Darlene Grima are representing the Office of the Attorney General in the proceedings.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Arthur Azzopardi, Jacob Magri and Charmaine Cherrett are assisting the defendants.