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2 MR Justice Antonio Mizzi yester- day rejected a prosecution request that the jury trying Allan Galea, accused of the 2010 murder of An- toine "Twanny l-Bona" Borg, be dissolved. The request, made after the jurors had left the courtroom for their mid-morning coffee break, came at the tail-end of a cross-examination of prosecution witness Clifton Cas- sar by defence lawyer Giannella de Marco. Witness Cassar had been a close friend of the victim, who was his girlfriend's uncle. In an earlier sit- ting, he had been described by CID police inspector Joseph Mercieca as "the most coherent witness, if not the most credible." He could not remember exactly how many people had been in the Nationalist Party club at the time, but with some nudging by the judge, recalled that other people had been there and had left before the incident. "Twanny was phoning someone," said the witness, who was unable to identify who the victim had been talking to. "There was music play- ing and I couldn't hear him." "Twanny was outside on the phone with someone, he looked a bit angry. Frans (the victim's brother) went out and saw the ac- cused, wearing a white T-shirt, up the road and said 'look there's Allan with a knife.' The accused started shouting "pufta!" and was waving the knife, said the witness, demonstrating the motion. "And what did Twanny do?" asked prosecuting lawyer Kristina Debattista. "He fired a shot in the air, walked forward two paces, fired another shot, then he threw the revolver away," he said. Galea was some distance away, up the road. He described how Borg had then sprinted towards Galea, but had tripped up in the pavement. "He took two steps back and then Allan jumped on him and stabbed him. He didn't even give him a chance." Asked by the judge, he said the vic- tim was upright when he suffered the first stab wound. Cassar's testimony shed some light on the choker-tugging inci- dent. Borg was fastidiously clean, the witness said. By tugging his choker, the accused had "ridiculed him. He didn't like people touching his things and clothes." "Allan came up to us and put his arm around my girlfriend, speaking to me... stinking of alcohol. He's a bodybuilder, and he started putting his fist against the baby's chin." The accused's girlfriend had told him to stop bothering people, said the wit- ness. Defence tears into "parrot-like" witnesses But this version of events was taken apart by defence lawyer Gi- annella de Marco. As she had done with other wit- nesses, she began by asking Cassar about the deceased's nickname "il- Power." De Marco mentioned a compila- tion CD played at the victim's fu- neral, titled "A tribute CD to Twan- ny Borg, known as Bona Power." The witness became sullen and evasive at that point, prompting the judge to ask whether it would be possible that people would refer to the deceased as il-power. It was possible, conceded the witness, eventually. He had not seen the choker pull- ing incident, but had been told of it by Paul Borg, known as ix-Xu, who ran the bar at the PN club, around a week later. De Marco asked about Borg's sev- eral cars. Borg owned a Mitsubishi Pajero, said Cassar. After some prodding, he added that Borg had also owned a pickup truck and a Mercedes. "Did you know where he got his money from?" asked the lawyer. "I don't know, it's his business," re- plied Cassar. "I wasn't with him all the time." He denied that people were scared of Borg. "He would go to a bar and buy everyone drinks." Cassar said he was unaware of Bona ever beating anyone and be- came increasingly reluctant to an- swer de Marco's questions, as his cross-examination dragged on. "Did Twanny start asking for something at the club?" asked the lawyer to confirm reports that he had been asking for the accused's telephone number. "I don't know, I was sitting down." The questions moved on to the choker-touching incident. "It's one thing touching it, but pulling on it is another," said the witness. "Did he start asking around for Allan's number?" asked the de- fence. "I didn't hear him. I was on the other side of the table," replied Cassar. "Twanny left in a rage and he was calling someone. I didn't hear what he was saying though," the witness conceded. De Marco pointed out that the three men had been seated next to each other at the table and the three women at the other side. "You were brought here to say the truth and not to repeat things like a parrot, like Twanny's parrot. Stop being a parrot and tell us what was said at the bar." To howls of protest from the prosecution bench, as the witness began telling the jury his version, de Marco mockingly anticipated the witness, almost word for word, with the same version which the court had heard from the other witnesses. But this version had only been told to the courts, said the lawyer. She tore into what she alleged was a script, pointing out that when asked for pertinent details which were not part of the script, witnesses would say that they did not know, besides their not having mentioned the knife-waving and name-calling in their statements to the police." "What did Twanny say?" asked de Marco. The witness seemed wrong-footed and said nothing. "Mute" noted the lawyer, with grim satisfaction. The judge asked what the men had been talking about during the two hours they had been drinking. "Karozzin" mumbled the witness after a few moments. "Twanny was always on the phone, even on Sun- day," he said. "Did Allan hide behind cars?" she asked. He did, the witness said. "So I don't think he [Galea] was firing into the air, was he?" He conceded that the accused had not resisted him when he had taken the knife from him. Neither had the accused punched Frans once. Asked if he had seen a baton, the witness quietly said that he had not. De Marco suggested that the wit- ness first saw the knife when the victim and the accused had come face to face and scuffled. Read- ing from his statement to police, she asked the witness whether the two had traded blows. The witness, caught off guard, said nothing, shifting uneasily in the dock. "Why did you tell the police that you had first seen the knife in Al- lan's hands?" demanded the lawyer. The witness said not a word. The judge asked Cassar to clarify what he meant by his assertion that the men had scuffled. "I didn't see them... at that time... Twanny stumbled backwards and…" stut- tered the witness. The judge asked whether the men had been trading punches, which is what he understood by "scuffled". "No they weren't," Cassar replied. The witness dithered as jurors asked questions about the weapon and the seating arrangement at the PN club. Prosecution requests the dissolution of the jury Before the jury was reconvened after a break, prosecuting lawyer Lara Lanfranco requested the dis- solution of the jury. She informed the court that the prosecution felt that "irregularities were being committed" during the cross-ex- amination of prosecution witness- es. The witnesses "were not being given the necessary attention and control," said Lanfranco. Whilst it was true that the defence had a job to do, "witnesses should not be ridiculed on the witness stand, sim- ply for maintaining their version of events," said the prosecutor, saying this may have caused "irremedi- able prejudice" to the prosecution's case. By way of reply, defence lawyer Joe Giglio submitted that this re- quest "emanated from the lack of understanding of the point of cross-examination." He described as "shameful," the fact that the prosecution felt that their witnesses had been discredited by the cross- examination. There was no legal reason to dissolve the jury, said the lawyer. "In the best hypothesis, this comment is frivolous." The court turned down the pros- ecution's request. maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 9 DECEMBER 2015 News 2 C A R E E R O P P O RT U N I T Y In 2017 Malta will be sharing the EU Presidency. As part of an exercise to supplement the complement of the Malta Environment Protection Directorate sta, a number of vacancies has arisen for: ASSISTANT ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION OFFICER / S e role requires a person to assist in identifying areas of environmental importance and to liaise with local bodies, organisations, authorities and other interested parties towards the drawing up and implementation of relevant managment programmes. Applicant / s must be in possession of a degree at MQF Level 6 preferably in the following elds: t-BX t$IFNJTUSZ t$IFNJTUSZBOE1IZTJDT t#JPMPHZBOE$IFNJTUSZ t1IZTJDTQFSGFSBCMZXJUI.BUITBOE$IFNJTUSZ t "O FOWJSPONFOUSFMFWBOU TPDJBM PS OBUVSBM discipline including geography, enviornmental planning, environmental management, environmental or natural resources, earth TZTUFNTPSFRVJWBMFOU t &YQFSJFODF PG OBUJPOBM BOE JOUFSOBUJPOBM FOWJSPONFOUBM MFHJTMBUJPO BOE QPMJDZ t *O QPTTFTTJPO PG B DMFBO ESJWJOH MJDFOTF e above post/s are for a denite period, of two years without the possibility of renewal. e employment in this position is specically for the new Environment and Resources Authority that will be formed by the Act that shall regulate the functions of this Authority. Interim employment in this post until the legislation of the new Act, shall be with MEPA. Interested candidates are advised to submit their application, together with a detailed curriculum vitae by 16 th December 2015 : e Human Resources Manager Malta Environment and Planning Authority Ref: Assistant Environment Protection Ocer/s (EU Presidency) ETC Permit No: ETC 111/2015 (EU Presidency) via email on jobsepd@mepa.org.mt For further information visit our website: www.mepa.org.mt/org-current-openings-at-mepa. Judge turns down jury dissolution request "Stop being a parrot and tell us what was said at the bar" Antoine "Twanny l-Bona" Borg was murdered in Marsaxlokk in 2010