Remaining two suspects of bank messenger’s murder to be charged

MaltaToday is reliably informed that over the past few days, two men have been interrogated and confronted by new evidence that could pin them to the scene of the crime during the early hours of 18 September 2000, when Bank of Valletta messenger Alphonse Ferriggi was gunned down as he reached the bank's doorstep in San Gwann.

Two men are already serving prison sentences for the murder: Richard Grech - 45, known as 'iz-Zinnan' - is serving a life sentence for pulling the trigger, while Joseph Zammit - 52 of Floriana, guilty of being an accomplice to the murder - is serving 30 years.

Ferriggi, 42, was delivering internal bank mail when a black Volkswagen Golf drove up and a shot rang out, hitting him in the head as he stood outside the Bank of Valletta branch.

The surveillance cameras outside the bank recorded everything except the identity of the people in the car.

Zammit had admitted to being the driver of the getaway car, but not the one who pulled the trigger.

Richard Grech - who was jailed for life last year - had admitted to being part of a group of four men who planned the hold-up, however he added that because of an alcohol problem, he had left the group to get a drink, moments before the crime took place.

He placed the blame on two other two men: Chris Scerri known as 'Buttuni' or 'Gazzetti' and James Vella, known as 'il-Frejżer' - whom, he claimed, planned the heist on the messenger who was believed to be carrying money and fired the gun.

"Vella is such a violent man that he would murder his own children if he had to and had even smashed his mother's teeth during an argument," Grech had told the court.

CCTV footage from the bank's cameras showed Ferriggi arriving at the BOV San Gwann Branch in a white Peugeot car at 5.23am, when just a minute later, a black VW Golf, which came from the parish church's direction, pulled up exactly by the Peugeot.

Two seconds later, he was taking cover behind the car that he drove to the bank and at 5.24.10am, he was already lying on his back. The VW Golf pulled away at 5.24.17am.

Ferriggi was then seen laying behind his car which was parked facing Naxxar.

There were seven bags of bank mail in open trunk. Its back window was broken, its engine was still running and its lights were on.

Mary Ferriggi, the victim's widow, had told the court -presided by Judge Lawrence Quintano - that she had been married to the victim for 20 years, and they had a 12-year-old son at the time of his death.

That morning, she said that Alphonse Ferriggi was up at 3.45am, and that he made her coffee, kissed her and promised to return to give her a lift to work. 

He never returned.