|
Karl Schembri
Hashim Youssef Azzabi, who had escaped from Malta’s prison five years ago while still facing drug trafficking charges, has been shot dead in Tripoli, sources close to Azzabi’s relatives told MaltaToday.
According to unconfirmed reports, the 49-year-old Libyan engineer was found dead in his car in central Tripoli last Wednesday, with a gunshot wound to his head and a revolver in his hand, leaving it unclear as to whether he was murdered or took his own life.
Azzabi, a former Libyan Arab airlines employee, was arrested at Malta International Airport on 9 November, 1998, together with businessman Ezedeen Mohammed Zelmati, after they arrived on a Swiss Air flight from Zurich. They were found carrying 17kgs of cannabis resin in a false bottom of a bag and in boxes for toys.
Zelmati was later jailed for 12 years and fined Lm15,000 but Azzabi managed to escape from police custody on 9 August, 1999, while he was being taken for treatment at Boffa Hospital in Floriana.
On the day of his escape, Azzabi was escorted only by one unarmed district police officer. He was reportedly sighted in Rome three months later, but remained on the run for the last five years.
Although the Maltese government had said it was seeking Interpol’s help in tracking down Azzabi, the drug trafficker was not on Interpol’s list of wanted criminals.
His escape had triggered outrage from the Opposition, which was quick to use it in its negative campaigns against the Nationalist government by mentioning it repeatedly alongside the pardons granted to drug traffickers Fancesco Assis Queiroz and Joseph Fenech known as Zeppi l-Hafi. Calls for an independent inquiry fell on deaf ears.
Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg, who was already responsible for prisons at the time of Azzabi’s escape, always vehemently refused to conduct an inquiry into the matter.
Incidentally, Foreign Minister Michael Frendo is expected to return from the Libyan capital tonight following a weekend-long bilateral visit which included a meeting with Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Shalgam.
|
