Libyan remanded in custody after rape claim

Magistrate Neville Camilleri has denied bail to a Libyan man who is charged with the attempted rape of a Swedish girl in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Franko Rasem Ahmed, a Libyan residing in Malta, pleaded not guilty to attempted rape of a Swedish girl on 11 January. The woman had claimed she was walking home at the time and ended up on the beach at St. Julians.

Ahmed was apparently arrested in the act of attempting to force himself on the girl.

The Libyan faces six charges in all: attempted rape, violent indecent assault, holding a person against her will, threatening her, slightly injuring her and offending public morals.

Lawyer Veronique Dalli described the allegations as alarmist, saying that this was not an attack. She claimed that the victim and the accused had spent the night drinking together in a club in Paceville and things began to get serious.

She is alleged to have “provocatively asked the accused what he thought of her top,” before kissing him “with a certain intimacy”.

The two then allegedly headed down to the bay for some privacy, however when they arrived there, the girl had a change of heart and started to shout to attract attention.

In response to the prosecution’s version of events, Dalli said that is not true that people go for walks on the bay at five in the morning. “It is not true that the accused is some kind of monster who jumps out of hiding places to sexually assault girls”.

She also pointed out that the accused has strong family ties to Malta, property in Malta and a Maltese ID card and should not be precluded from being granted bail.

Prosecuting Inspector Elton Taliana, however, said that at no point in the victim or the accused’s interrogation did it emerge that they were spending time together or that she was walking on the beach. “The incident caused fear amongst the public, as this is a safe country.”

The court denied the request for bail due to the risk of tampering with evidence, however acceded to the defence’s request to preserve the CCTV footage of the establishment in which they were drinking.