Man pretends to throw grenades at French embassy
A bid to obtain a French passport by a man claiming to be a descendant of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has ended with him being remanded in custody after he pretended to throw a grenade at the French embassy on Friday, breaking a policewoman’s finger, and trying to escape from a courtroom yesterday.
Thirty-eight-year-old Aimen Mohamed Abdallah Ali, who told police he was related to deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and who is understood to be a medical doctor, was charged after violently resisting attempts by the female police officer guarding the French embassy to arrest him.
Inspector Priscilla Caruana Lee told Magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace that Ali had, over several days, behaved erratically and pretended to throw grenades at the embassy in Melita Street, Valletta. Sources involved in the investigation explained that the man wanted a French passport. When the policewoman on duty outside the embassy ordered the man to halt on Friday, he is alleged to have attacked her and broken her finger, before running off. He was apprehended by the police a short distance away.
Ali is accused of violently resisting arrest, threatening and grievously injuring a police officer, disobeying her orders, refusing to give his details, breaching the peace and living an idle and vagrant life.
As the sitting was about to begin yesterday, the accused tried to escape from the courtroom, flinging aside two police officers who were standing next to him, before barrelling into a police inspector who happened to be outside. A number of plainclothes police officers then tackled the accused to the ground and scuffled with the man, who had to be subdued by force after resisting the police with considerable violence.
He apologised to the court as he was being led back in handcuffs – which stayed on for the duration of the sitting – after his escape was thwarted.
In view of his behaviour, the court ordered the man to be psychiatrically evaluated.
The court said his comportment did not allow it to accept any guilty plea. Bail was also ruled out.
After discussions about where the man would be held, a joint request by the prosecution and defence saw the man detained at Mount Carmel Hospital’s forensic unit.