Marsaxlokk Restaurateur Found Guilty Of Assaulting Councillor’s Brother During Tables And Chairs Dispute
A court has conditionally discharged a Marsaxlokk restaurateur after finding him guilty of physically assaulting a councillor’s brother during a fight that broke out over tables and chairs on the promenade.
George Barbara, co-owner of the Rizzu Restaurant, was charged by police with assaulting Robert Zerafa, brother of PL councillor Daniel Zerafa, in November 2021.
Magistrate Rachel Montebello heard that the dispute arose after the Zerafa brothers tried to erect a kiosk for the Marsaxlokk monti in a manner that stopped the restaurant from placing tables and chairs outside. After a restaurant employee tried to install an umbrella outside, Daniel Zerafa stopped him and warned him that they didn’t have a permit from the local council to place chairs and tables in an area that was reserved for the monti.
Barbara and co-owner George Galea were informed and an argument broke out between the restaurateurs and the Zerafa brothers that soon turned physical. Daniel Zerafa, who had posted photos of his head injuries on Facebook after the incident, ended up getting knocked out and falling to the ground.
Daniel Zerafa
Robert Zerafa said that the restaurant’s owners and staff kept kicking his brother while he was on the ground and that he tried to get in their way and grabbed George Barbara’s shoulder. Barbara allegedly turned to him, asked him whether he was “a bully like his brother” and punched him in the face. He said the fight stopped thanks to the intervention of a restaurant employee.
Barbara testified that his partner George Galea had instructed an employee to install tables and chairs outside but was stopped by Daniel Zerafa, prompting Galea to go outside. He said he saw Zerafa uninstall an umbrella and hit Galea with it, after which he ran into the street and got punched in the face, in a manner that broke his glasses and damaged his teeth.
Galea testified that Zerafa had attacked him with an umbrella, causing him to bleed from the mouth and dislocate his teeth.
Barbara said that although he couldn’t see who punched him, his employees told him it had been Robert Zerafa. The restaurateur said he couldn’t remember whether he had punched anyone himself or whether Daniel Zerafa had ended up unconscious, but denied assaulting anyone before he was punched himself. He said that while Robert Zerafa entered the fight after his brother was knocked to the ground, he doesn’t know who had punched him.
Magistrate Rachel Montebello
After hearing the versions of events, Montebello chose to believe Robert Zerafa after finding contradictions in Barbara’s version.
She therefore conditionally discharged the restaurateur for three years and ordered him to keep the public peace and not to assault Robert Zerafa, at risk of a €2,300 penalty over the next 12 years.
“Although it must be emphasised that violence is condemnable and can never be considered as an acceptable substitute for communication and tolerance, or as a solution to problems that will inevitably episode, in the circumstances of this case the court doesn’t believe this case merits jail time,” she said.
The injuries that Daniel Zerafa sustained are subject to a separate criminal case.
Cover photo: Left: The injuries that Daniel Zerafa sustained during the fight that he published on Facebook, Right: The Marsaxlokk promenade where the fight broke out
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