Four arraigned after Bugibba incidents during the summer

Four men were yesterday charged in court following a series of incidents that took place in Buġibba during summer.

Al Khadur Fadi, 26, Najar Ghyas, 20, Al Maaloul Abdulkhader, 19 and Alghazi Abdallah, 19, all born in Syria and residing at St Paul’s Bay, were brought before Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech to respond to charges of causing a string of incidents.

On 3 July, at around 10.30pm, a group of Syrians were seen harassing a female customer seated at an outlet at the Buġibba Square. They were trying to remove the woman’s chair. The Syrians injured a man who tried to help the woman, hitting him with a glass.

On the same night, police officers at the Qawra station received other reports of incidents which broke out at the Buġibba square. The same four Syrians were involved.

A man reported that he had been enjoying coffee with his wife when the group began to play ball in the vicinity. When he asked the men to move away, they turned upon him causing him slight injury.

A pregnant woman also reported that a young Syrian man had scrambled under the restaurant table where she was sitting. When her husband ordered him off, a group of fellow nationals had turned up, but the group dispersed when they saw a gang of Libyans who arrived at the scene.

A sergeant from the Qawra police station explained in court that investigators had acted upon information received by the victims and other third parties. This led to the identification of three of the alleged culprits who were found to reside in the vicinity of the local police station.

The fourth man was identified quite some time later by means of a photo on Facebook which one of the victims had brought to the attention of the police.

Magistrate Frendo Dimech imposed upon each of the men a personal guarantee of €2,000 and ordered them to sign the bail book at the Qawra police station once a week every Saturday.

Inspector Maurice Curmi prosecuted.