Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/745623
3 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2016 News Thursday TVM 20:50 attacks since 2010 of bombs at the height of the po- litical tensions in the 80s. Cassar's murder was at the time linked to a series of bomb attacks which targeted well-known crim- inals such as Keith Galea and Paul Degabriele, known as is-Suldat, in 2012. He was also believed to have been connected with a bomb placed outside Transport Malta offices in 2010. In September 2013, Pierre Cre- mona and William Farrugia narrowly escaped injury when an explosive device, which was attached to a mobile phone, ex- ploded outside a boathouse the two were in. The pair had managed to escape before the bomb went off. Sources close to the investigation, at the time had said that the bomb was very similar to that placed under Paul Degabriele's pick-up truck. In 2012, Degabriele's van was targeted by a parcel bomb. Dega- briele – who would be shot dead a year later in Marsa – had been alerted to the bomb and reported it to the police. The bomb consisted of three welded metal cylinders heav- ily packed with explosive powder, believed to be the same used in the manufacture of fireworks. In November 2011, Keith Galea's car had also been destroyed by a parcel bomb, three days after he was released from prison. Explo- sives experts had said that the in- dications were that the bomb had been detonated using a mobile phone and was made with highly explosive material such as TNT or dynamite, which also indicat- ed a high level of sophistication in its fabrication. A month later, in December 2010, a bomb blew up outside Transport Malta offices. The bomb was believed to have been intended for then head of the land transport section, Konrad Pule. It was also believed to have been constructed in a sophisticated manner, and was made using TNT. well-known businessman John Camilleri, aka Giovann tas-Sapuna Jury returns not guilty verdict in Cassone murder trial MATTHEW AGIUS THE man accused of murder- ing an employee at an Italian restaurant in St Julian's in Janu- ary 1993 has been declared not guilty by a jury. The 7:2 not guilty verdict was reached after five hours of de- liberation on the 16th day of the trial. Earlier in the day Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi had concluded his closing address, having be- gun the painstaking process of summing up the evidence for the benefit of the jurors on Saturday. The man on trial, who cannot be named as he was a minor at the time, was accused of killing 58-year-old Vittorio Cassone, who died at the Chef Italy af- ter being shot in the chest by a masked robber, despite handing over some Lm150 (€350). Defence law yer Franco Debono had attacked what he described as an "erratic and approximate" police investigation and high- lighted inconsistencies in the testimony of the Italian witness- es, arguing that there was more than reasonable doubt required to exonerate the accused. Several of the defence's argu- ments had centred around the figure of Victor Testa, who had also been arrested by police in connection with the murder. Testa had been asked to give the accused a lift on the day of the shooting and had told the inves- tigating police inspector that the accused had fired a shot out of the driver-side window. Testa had been questioned but after giving the police a strong alibi, he ceased to be considered a sus- pect. He was not tested for gun- shot residue at the time. Testa had released a statement to po- lice, but this was not exhibited in the acts of the case. The defence had also sav- aged the credibility of the Ital- ian witnesses, pointing out that the cook at Chef Italy, Silvano D'Agostini, had since married the victim's widow and was struggling with his conscience, and another Italian witness, Marco Russo, had appeared to pick out a person who was not the accused from pictures of the identification parade. Another witness had initially picked out a person who was not the accused no fewer than eight times. Prosecutor Kevin Valletta pos- ited that the witnesses' unwill- ingness to conclusively identif y the accused had been down to fear. The law yer accused the de- fence of "putting the victims on trial", arguing that all witnesses had picked out the accused from a line-up, even if they had only been 99% certain. Whilst he conceded that the evidence available was not the best it could have been, he ar- gued that the jury should find the accused guilty because the Attorney General's Office had already evaluated the evidence. Law yers Kevin Valletta and Anne Marie Cutajar prosecut- ed. Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel. The relieved defence team – Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri - was all smiles as they walked out of court