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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Rosso, 48, from Marsaxlokk, was shot dead in his hometown on October 10, 2005, outside a house belonging to Anthony Bugeja, one of the men accused of his mur- der. Prosecutors said that Rosso's killing was connected to a dispute over a fishing vessel owned by Rosso and Bugeja and on which Di Bartolo worked. It was alleged that the pair shot Rosso and threw his body into the sea along with bricks and rocks, so the body wouldn't surface. On Saturday, the jury reached a decision in a matter of two hours. A vote of 7-2 resulted in the ac- cused being found not guilty of murder, while Di Bartolo was also found not guilty of being complicit in the murder. After reaching their decision, the accused's lawyers were informed of the jury's deci- sion, along with the prosecution. In court, the accused and their family members rejoiced upon hearing the decision. The defence and prosecution concluded their arguments on Fri- day, and at around 9:00am the day later, the jurors were given guid- ance on how one should proceed in cases such as this. Here, Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera explained that if one is not certain, the ju- rors should not fill in the gaps of the case themselves, while telling them that one should not take into consideration anything they might have heard outside the court. Judge Scerri Herrera further ex- plained the laws that come into play in such a trial, as is usually the case, by explaining the legal terms that the jurors might not be famil- iar with. The trial by Jury The trial by jury trying Bugeja and di Bartolo commenced on Monday, where the jury heard that the victim had started carrying a handgun after being "constantly threatened." As former police of- ficer Toinette Cauchi took the wit- ness stand, she explained how she had last seen him on the morning of 10 October 2005, telling her that he had a dispute that he needed to get rid of. Rosso had told the wom- an that Anthony Bugeja's wife had been phoning him up, pestering him about some money. Another witness, former police inspector Christopher Pullici- no told the jury that Rosso's last known human contact had been a phone call with Bugeja. That was the last phone call to Rosso's num- ber that was answered, he said. Investigations had established that the phone call was placed in the Marsaxlokk area and service providers had informed the police that Anthony Bugeja had placed the call. When the police went to Bugeja's garage, they noted that the floor had recently been washed with bleach and observed a dent in the garage door that appeared to have been made by a bullet. Loose am- munition was found on the steps to the roof in Bugeja's residence, the witness said, but was unable to recall whether they had been spent cartridges or not. On Monday, then-assistant com- missioner of police had also taken the witness stand, where he re- counted how Rosso had gone to his office because of the threats he had been receiving. The victim had said that he had been at Por- to Palo on his boat when Bugeja informed him that a Sicilian man had warned him not to go there again. From his end, John Rizzo had similarly testified that the victim had called him up a week before his disappearance and mentioned a man who he had described as notorious. Rosso had spoken about the threats to several people, includ- ing his wife and co-workers, said the witness, confirming that Rosso would carry a firearm on his per- son because of the threats. Next to testify was Adriana Fenech Farrugia, a Fisheries De- partment official and colleague of Rosso's. She used to share an office with the victim and recalled find- ing a very worried Rosso sitting in front of his computer with his head in his hands shortly before his disappearance. On Thursday the victim's widow Mary Rose Rosso gave an, at times emotional, account of her hus- band's final days as she testified against his alleged murderers. A teacher, she had gone to work earlier than usual to prepare her classroom on the day he disap- peared and had missed seeing her husband off as was her custom. Their last conversation had taken place over the phone, she recalled with regret. She said her husband's demean- our had undergone a sudden change, with him becoming pre- occupied with threats to his life, sometimes being too afraid to go to work and on one occasion, telling her that he would soon be dead. Mary Rose Rosso had also called up Bugeja's wife to ask for the ad- dresses of the Italians who worked on her husband's trawler, hoping for news. All of these attempts at locating Brian Rosso were unsuc- cessful however, and at around 9pm that night she had gone to the Żabbar police station to report her husband as missing. The witness recalled two inci- dents which her husband had told her happened at sea, the first when Bugeja had shot a dolphin while Rosso had been feeding it. She re- called her husband as being upset because he had always insisted on not taking weapons on board. A second incident the witness men- tioned involved Anthony Bugeja switching on the engine while Ros- so had been in the water, remov- ing a net which Bugeja had tangled around the propeller. Prosecutor Angele Vella from the Office of the Attorney General made the prosecution's submis- sions as the trial of Anthony Buge- ja and Piero di Bartolo entered its final furlong on Friday. She described the murder as "a nearly perfect crime" that was unravelled by circumstantial evi- dence. "Destiny helps you stir the pot but then makes you forget to put the lid on," quipped the lawyer. "Yes, Tony Bugeja and Piero di Bartolo killed Albert Brian Rosso. Yes a weapon was used, reference being made to the firearm found in the pouch and yes, they hid his body, which was never found." "Albert Brian Rosso was a ma- rine biologist. A scientist and an animal-lover. The defendants concocted a story to terrify him, telling him that 'the Sicilians' were out to get him, in a bid to keep him away," Vella said, reminding the court that former Commissioner of Police John Rizzo had told the jury that it had been the defend- ants who informed Rosso about the threats. "There were no threats, no Ital- ians. It was just a ploy to get rid of Rosso," she said. Replying to the prosecution's closing arguments on Friday, Bugeja's defence lawyer Franco Debono told the jury that the case against the defendants was "built on fantasies and suppositions." The lawyer stressed that no death certificate had been issued, sug- gesting that there was no certainty that Rosso was even deceased. "Is there proof that he is dead? Do we know where he is? Can you be certain that he died?" Debono said, arguing that there was "not a single piece of evidence" to show that a murder took place. A shot- gun found in a garage and burnt objects in the vicinity did not mean that Rosso was murdered, said the lawyer. "To have proof, you need a body, pathologists, an autopsy and all this brings with it so as to establish the cause of death. It is true that you can't exclude murder because there is no corpse, but what is cer- tain is that in this case we have a huge hole in the evidence." The defence lawyer went on to suggest that it could even have been a case of self defence, because Rosso "was always running around with a revolver," but said that these were all just suppositions. 2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 JUNE 2023 NEWS MALTA'S work to "break from past trends" in rela- tion to waste management has been applauded by Eu- ropean Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius, as WasteServ set new records for the quantity of recyclables returned to the economy. In fact, properly separated organic waste saw an increase of more than 25%, leading to higher renewable energy pro- duction, while other properly separated waste such as wood and mattresses saw increases of 72% and 600% respectively. Following a tour around Malta's waste management infrastructure accompanied by environment minister Miriam Dalli and WasteServ CEO Richard Bilocca, Com- missioner Sinkevičius noted the speed at which Malta is breaking away from historical waste management tendencies through investment and bold legislative reforms in order to meet the EU's 2035 objectives. The delegation was able to observe the contrast between the old Magtab landfill and ongoing work on Malta's new approach, emphasizing Mal- ta's current efforts to transition away from landfilling and turn waste streams into useful re- sources. It was highlighted that implementing the ECOHIVE strategy, which is based on the circular economy was one ap- proach that made a significant effect in this regard. Environment minister, Miri- am Dalli described the work in the waste management sector as in which reverses a trend seen by the country, after hav- ing ranked lowest across all scoreboards since joining the EU, noting "encouraging re- sults." In fact, Dalli said that Was- teServ has set records in terms of the volume of recyclables re- turned to the economy during the last two years. This includes a huge improvement in plastic recycling performance, which has more than tripled Malta's prior performance. Malta sees input and output records in waste management industry Anthony Bugeja (left) and Piero Di Bartolo (Photos: James Bianchi/MaltaToday) Albert Brian Rosso murder trial Jury deliberates for just two hours before acquitting suspects