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2 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 21 OctObEr 2015 News University to be used for secret 'national security matters' during CHOGM Tim Diacono The University of Malta will be closed between November 27 and 29 following a request by the Commonwealth health of Government Meeting organising committee to reduce its activi- ties on these days for "national security reasons". ChOGM taskforce head of op- erations Christopher Formosa told MaltaToday that parts of the university will be used "for matters of national security that cannot be divulged". Staff and students were in- formed in a memorandum from rector Juanito Camilleri that all lectures scheduled for Friday, November 27 were being post- poned and all staff would be on special leave with pay. Any lectures or other activities scheduled for 28 November were also postponed. The staff and students were also informed that no parking would be allowed in car park 6 at the Msida campus. Nationalist Party deputy leader Mario de Marco claimed in a tweet that the university closure was down to increased traffic congestion during the Common- wealth heads of Government meeting. On his part, Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson Ar- nold Cassola, a lecturer himself, dubbed the university closure an act of "madness", sarcasti- cally querying whether the uni- versity should also be closed for six months in 2017 when Malta hosts the eU Presidency during that year. All schools across the island will close on Friday, 27 Novem- ber, the day Queen elizabeth II is scheduled to arrive in Malta for the ChOGM opening. new evidence points at accused's vicinity to crime scene conTinues from Page 1 A number of undeleted messages were found in el Gadi's Blackberry phone. On 18 April there were a number of messages from the victim, tell- ing him to stay away, that he was breaking the law by contacting her and only to talk to her through her lawyer. his SMSes were pleas for a second chance. he later seemed to concede that they should just be friends. he did not tell police about the harsh messages which he had received from the victim, telling him to stay away, noted the inspec- tor. The last SMS sent to him by the victim was one where she had in- formed him that she could not meet him to give him his CV, as she was busy. Arnaud explained that the police had analysed the strength of WiFi signals in the Xemxija area and compared it with the list of MAC addresses of the connecting de- vices. A detailed analysis of CCTV at a petrol station where the accused had claimed to have paid €10 to refuel his rental car and the cor- responding transaction records at the service station was painstak- ingly explained to the jury by Ar- naud. he demonstrated that the accused's claim to have stopped at the petrol station and bought €10 worth of petrol from Pump 5 was not borne out by the evidence. The jury heard how el Gadi had been a private in the Libyan army, but had refused to answer ques- tions about his military training, other than confirming that he had served for a year. The accused had told police that about a month prior the victim had received a threaten- ing letter from a "black immigrant" who was going to be extradited, but investigations had found no sup- porting evidence for this claim. earlier in the day the jury heard Arnaud read out a letter, addressed to Mifsud's children, written by the Libyan, in which he hinted at the possibility of committing suicide out of love for their mother. Arnaud testified that during a search of the victim's bedroom by police, officers had found a docu- ment written in the victim's hand in which she described a strangula- tion attempt by the accused on 24 March 2012. But in a letter to his children af- ter their mother's murder, el-Gadi had written: "Whoever told you I murdered your mother is a liar and those who tell you this are doing so because they want to see us apart. Don't believe a word they say... Do you remember the time you saw your mother and I kiss each other at Pizza hut? If I commit suicide it is because I love your mother very much." Police officers from the cyber- crime unit had inspected a laptop and digital camera retrieved from the victim's bedroom and found images of the victim walking with the two children in Sliema. The photographs had been taken on an iPhone 4 on 16 April – three days before the murder, said the inspector. The person taking the photo had evidently been follow- ing the target, he added. el-Gadi owned an iPhone 4 as well as a Blackberry. The accused had not been truth- ful with the police when asked about his whereabouts on the day of the murder, said the inspector, adding that this fact was demon- strated by the position reported by the cell phone towers which relayed his mobile phone's broadcasts. el-Gadi had claimed to have been in Bugibba but the signals from his phone showed that he had gone to Xemxija – a fact he had failed to tell the police, Arnaud said. CCTV footage also show the accused driving a different route from that which he had claimed to have fol- lowed, said the officer. "el-Gadi told police he met a Rus- sian woman near Pender Gardens after parking his car near Kavalieri hotel," said the inspector. "he tried to convince her to go to Paceville with him but she de- clined, saying that people make too many sexual remarks in Paceville. Instead, he convinced her to go somewhere else, to Bugibba. So he went for his car and said he drove up to Bugibba. "el-Gadi said that while in Bugib- ba, he told the girl that he wanted to take a CV to a restaurant," Ar- naud said. Interestingly, during Monday's session, it emerged that he changed the version of events when he told police who called him up to verify whether Margaret was with him, following a missing person's re- port. "el-Gadi told police, who called him on his phone, that he had seen Margaret last at 8pm on 18 April. he said he had requested his ex- wife to take the CVs, which were saved on her laptop, to the hotel he was staying in but he later changed his story, telling investigators that he had gone to her mother's resi- dence to collect the CVs in person," the policeman said. Arnaud explained that in order to determine whether he had re- ally gone to Bugibba, police had asked el-Gadi to show police ex- actly what route he had used to arrive at Bugibba and whether he had stopped anywhere else on the way. It turned out that he went to Xemxija as well. "When we asked him about the fact that he had also gone to Xemx- ija but had not told us, the accused replied that the police who had been accompanying him as he was showing them the route had made a mistake. "el-Gadi claimed that he had told them he went to Xemxija. But the police insisted that he never told them this part of the story," Inspec- tor Arnaud said. Inspector Arnaud said that items recovered from his cell at the lock- up indicated that the accused had made an abortive suicide attempt. el-Gadi was subsequently taken to Mount Carmel hospital. he was released from the hospital six days after the murder and was arrested, Inspector Arnaud said. Judge Antonio Mizzi is presiding over the trial. Lawyers Philip Galea Farrugia and Giannella Busutil are prosecuting. Lawyer Martin Testaferata Moroni Viani is de- fending the accused, whilst lawyer Kathleen Grima and Arthur Azzo- pardi are appearing as parte civile for the victim's family. Nizar el Gadi was arrested on charges of holding Margaret Mifsud against her will back in March 2012 1,436 divorces granted by Maltese courts since introduction in 2011 miriam Dalli SINCe the introduction of di- vorce legislation in Malta in Oc- tober 2011, courts in Malta and Gozo granted a total of 1,436 divorces. A total of 1,386 divorces were granted by Maltese courts be- tween 2011 and early September 2015; during the same period, 50 divorces were granted by Gozi- tan courts. The data provided by Justice Minister Owen Bonnici to par- liament, in reply to whip God- frey Farrugia, also shows that the highest number of case – 432 in Malta and 18 in Gozo – were given in 2012. Since then, the number of cases has gone down. The only increase registered was in Gozo when divorces rose to 12 by September 2015, up from seven in 2014. Gozo started with just two cases in 2011, fol- lowed by 18 (2012) and 11 (2013) cases. In Malta the numbers changed as follows: 42 (2011), 432 (2012), 349 (2013), 320 (2014), 243 (Sep- tember 2015). Divorce legislation came into force on October 1 after the ref- erendum was held in May 2011. The law grants divorce to cou- ples that have been separated or living apart for the past four years in the last five years. Before May 2011, few would have been bold enough to pre- dict that divorce would be part of Malta's code of laws. Most predictions had in fact suggest- ed the very opposite. Your first click of the daY www.maltatoday.com.mt