Jeremie Camilleri charged with murder: ‘Not a simple traffic accident but wilful homicide,’ inspector says
Jeremie Camilleri has been charged with the murder of Pelin Kaya.
Camilleri, 33, from Lija had been behind the wheel of the BMW which rammed into 30year-old Pelin Kaya, while she was walking on Testaferrata Street in Gżira at 1am on Wednesday morning.
Camilleri, who told the court that he does not work, pleaded not guilty to the charges. Bail was not requested and Magistrate Joe Mifsud turned down a request by the defence lawyers to send the accused to Mount Carmel Hospital to continue receiving psychiatric treatment.
Mifsud said Camilleri will go to the Corradino Correctional Facility and it will be the director over there to determine the best care plan possible.
Prosecuting inspector Kurt Zahra did not mince his words when testifying on the arrest: “This was not a simple traffic accident but wilful homicide.”
Camilleri was also charged with driving under the influence of drugs, injuring two other bystanders, causing damage to the petrol station and restaurant and other vehicles, breaching a probation order and possession of cocaine and diazepam.
The case will now be assigned to another magistrate for the compilation of evidence to start.
Kaya, from Turkey, had been rushed to Mater Dei Hospital by ambulance but died of her injuries. An interior designer, Kaya is believed to have been working in Malta for a year and was celebrating her birthday on the day she was killed.
CCTV footage of the incident that later went viral shows a black BMW crashing headlong into the Gzira KFC outlet next to the Paul & Rocco petrol station. Kaya had been walking next to the petrol station and her body was flung several metres by the violent impact.
The driver, later identified as Camilleri, is then seen emerging from the vehicle.
The driver had to be tasered twice by police officers before he could be taken into custody.
Sources had said that drug tests revealed that Camilleri had high levels of cocaine in his bloodstream.
Although Camilleri is believed to have had previous convictions, for reasons which are not clear, only his most recent conviction can be found on the court website. That conviction dates back to just two weeks ago, when, on 4 January, Camilleri had pleaded guilty to shoplifting items from health food stores in Sliema and Attard and breaching a probation order.
He was subsequently sentenced to probation for three years on 4 January.
Pelin Kaya's relatives issued a statement outside the law courts just after Jeremie Camilleri was arraigned yesterday.
An interpreter read out a statement by Kaya’s uncle.
“I’m speaking on behalf of the family because Pelin’s sister is devastated and her parents do not have the strength to come here. I’m speaking after we’ve been in the same court hall with the person accused of killing our Pelin.”
“We are deeply hurt and we are angry for what happened. A part of us has died with Pelin. Pelin was a wonderful, intelligent person. She had dreams and ambitions and she had decided to pursue them in Malta. Her wonderful future has been taken away from her because of the atrocious events that happened on Pelin’s birthday. We cannot understand what triggered the person to commit these atrocities. We do not want revenge but we want justice and we will fight so that justice is served on Pelin’s behalf. We thank the Maltese people for being close to us and for condemning what happened. We thank the Maltese police force for their prompt action which led to the accused being arraigned in court.”
They also thanked the Turkish Embassy for their support.