Bill of indictment filed against El Hiblu 3

The Attorney General has chosen to indict three young men from the Ivory Coast and Guinea on terrorism charges, accusing them of hijacking the oil tanker that rescued them at sea after they fled Libya.

The decision comes more than a year after the last witness was heard, in September 2022.

Koni Tiemoko Abdoul Khader, Amara Kromah and Abdalla Bari were 15, 16, and 19 years old when they were charged with hijacking the El Hiblu 1, the oil tanker that had rescued them and 108 other people fleeing Libya from the sea. 

In September the court issued an international arrest warrant for Kader after he failed to turn up for a sitting. The police informed the magistrate that he had not signed his bail book for the six weeks before that. 

The El Hiblu docked in Malta (Photo: MaltaToday)

He is believed to have fled Malta.

Some of the offences the remaining two men are indicted for carry a possible life sentence.

Prosecutors claim the defendants had coerced the captain into not returning them to Libya, where they feared persecution and torture.

It emerged in court that the trio, who were the only English speakers among the rescued group, had been acting as interpreters between the ship’s captain and the asylum seekers. 

But although the overwhelming majority of witnesses in the lengthy compilation of evidence told the court that no violence or threats were made, prosecutors gave more weight to the testimony of the vessel’s captain who had radioed the Maltese authorities to inform them that his vessel had been hijacked by pirates.

Defence says AG interpretation ‘weaponises the law’

“It took the Attorney General over four years to issue a harsh and ill-thought out Bill of Indictment against our two clients in relation to the El Hiblu incident. On 8 November a total of 9 charges were brought against the two young men, including the unfounded terrorism charges and other equally unsubstantiated charges,” the men’s defence lawyers said in a statement to the press.

The lawyers have filed a reply to the indictment before the Criminal Court, outlining their objections to the AG’s version of the facts and requesting the Court to dismiss all charges. 

Activists hold a banner saying 'Free The El Hiblu 3' outside the Attorney General's office (Photo: Moviment Graffitti)

They argue lack of jurisdiction, stating that no evidence was presented to show that any crime had been committed in Maltese territory, and accuse the Attorney General of stretching the interpretation of some of the charges to an extent that renders them null and void. 

“The defence believes that such an interpretation weaponises the law against asylum seekers,” said lawyer Neil Falzon.

“We also underline that all evidence points to our clients being mediators between the crew and the group of rescue people. That they did their utmost to calm a difficult situation and that, ultimately, their intentions were to save the lives of the men, women and children who had recently fled the horror of Libya. 

“Finally, we remind the AG that our clients are not ‘a large number of the rescued people’, but two persons. That abstract narratives grouping people together do not meet criminal law thresholds.”

International human rights bodies, including Amnesty International and Sea Watch, have also repeatedly called upon the Maltese authorities to drop the charges.

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