Teens accused of Qrendi murder to face trial
Two teens accused of the murder of Saviour Gaffarena and the attempted murder of his 17-year old cousin, Vincent, last month have been sent to trial.
Magistrate Nadine Lia delivered a decree on Monday declaring that there was sufficient evidence for both accused to be indicted.
[attach id=908523 size="medium" align="left" type="image"]Murder accused Owen Schembri (left) with Vince Gaffarena, who was injured in the attack. Photo: Facebook.[/attach]
The decree followed submissions by both defence teams last Thursday, at the first hearing of the compilation proceedings, when lawyers argued that the accused should be discharged since the evidence presented by the prosecution fell short of the necessary degree of probability for them to be placed under a bill of indictment.
Those arguments were not upheld by the court.
Following that pronouncement, lawyer Arthur Azzopardi, assisting Schembri, made submissions for bail, arguing that the only civilian witness still to testify was Vincent Gaffarena himself, who had already given his version to investigators.
Other witnesses were scene-of-crime officers and court experts appointed in the magisterial inquiry, said Azzopardi, thus...