Attard man charged with Ta’ Qali attempted murder

A man from Attard was charged on Saturday with attempting to murder a man and steal his money in Ta’ Qali this week.

36-year-old Elliot Paul Busuttil appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to charges.

Busuttil was accused of stabbing a 57-year-old Bulgarian man who was found in Ta’ Qali lying on the ground in a pool of blood on Thursday night.

The man's wounds were initially considered to be life-threatening but police inspector Keith Arnaud told the court on Saturday that the victim’s condition was now stable.

Investigators had immediately identified Busuttil as the prime suspect and found him hiding in a block of apartments in Attard early on Friday morning.

Busuttil did not request bail and was remanded in custody by magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia, who presided over the court.

In 2018, Farrugia was accused of carrying a knife in public whilst on bail for drug offences has been jailed. He was charged with carrying a knife in public without a permit, breaching bail, committing an offence during the operative period of a suspended sentence, breaching the peace by making a noisy disturbance and relapsing.

In February 2018, Busuttil had been released on bail after being charged in connection with a police raid on a Bugibba drug den. His lawyer had then entered a plea of guilty on behalf of the accused, asking that he be held at Mount Carmel forensic section and not at Corradino prisons, so that he could be admitted to a drug rehabilitation programme.

His admission allowed the court to sentence him to a €116 fine for the knife charge and nine months’ imprisonment for the other charges.

Lawyers Edward Gatt and Ishmael Psaila were defence counsel.