Luqa man jailed for six months, fined €4,000 for assaulting officers in court

Antonio Briffa, a 38-year-old man from Luqa, was sentenced to six months imprisonment and fined €4,000 for attacking a number of officers in court, as well as a lawyer and his wife.

The accused was at the law courts appearing in a separate hearing when he attacked police inspectors Hubert Cini, Branton Gillford and Clint Bohn on 21 February this year.

The court heard how the accused caused slight injuries to the police officers.

Mr Briffa was charged with threatening the officers, causing them slight injury, assault on an officer, assaulting other individuals, breaching public order, breaching the conditions of no less than two separate conditional discharges, breaching bail conditions and those of a suspended sentence.

The courts found him guilty of assaulting both the officers and the individuals, disobeying an instruction from the authorities and breaching public order.

He was acquitted of breaching the conditions of his conditional discharges, and the court abstained from deciding on the charges of threatening an officer and causing slight injury at the request of the prosecution.

With regards the charge levelled against the accused relating to breaching conditions for bail in a separate case, the court revoked his bail and remanded him in custody.

It is understood that the revocation of bail could have been carried out because if the accused appealed the six-month jail sentence and the €4,000 fine, he would be allowed to walk free pending the outcome of the appeal. It felt that in the circumstances, it should not confiscate the man’s €15,000 personal guarantee.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud, presiding over the case, said that the police and other court officials should be given the right protection while in court. “It is in the society’s interest to allow police officers to do their job properly and in safety, more so, when such incidents occur in the corridors of the courts.”

Magistrate Mifsud made it clear the court must provide a serene environment for law enforcement officers to carry out their work properly. He noted that the incident taking place inside the court house made it that much more serious. A protection order was also issued in favour of the assaulted parties.

The prosecution was led by inspectors Daryl Borg while Dr Alfred Abela appeared for the accused.