Three in court over Paceville mobile phone theft fracas

Two Somali men who beat up a fellow national after he stole a mobile phone from them have been conditionally discharged, while the man who allegedly stole the phone has been remanded in custody after all three were charged in court this morning.

Mohanad Kaarshe Ahmed and Abdiqqdir Mahamaud Ali were arrested in Paceville at 2:30am this morning after police reacted to reports of a fight.

Inspector Trevor Micallef told magistrate Gabriella Vella how police had detained the pair after they assaulted Mohammed Hassan Abdullahi. It emerged that Abdullahi had stolen a mobile phone from one of the accused, he said.

The men were charged with causing slight injury to Mohammed Hassan Abdullahi and breaching the peace.

Police had been called to deal with a fight in the entertainment district and had found Ahmed and Ali were holding Abdullahi, claiming that he had stolen a wallet and mobile phone from one of them in Paceville at 2:30am this morning.

The men, speaking through a chain of translators, pleaded guilty to the charges. Prosecution and defence agreed that a conditional discharge would be the ideal punishment.

In view of the fact that they were victims and their early guilty plea, the court handed them both a 6 month conditional discharge.

In a separate arraignment Abdullahi was charged with theft, public drunkenness and breaching previous bail conditions.

The man appeared in court with his face still bloodied and his clothes torn. He had been certified as having been slightly injured, said the inspector.

Lawyer Noel Bartolo entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of Abdullahi and requested bail.

Inspector Micallef objected, pointing out that the man had already been given bail by a previous court and should have been indoors at the time of the incident.

Bartolo suggested that it had been the other two men who had attacked a third party and stolen his mobile phone and that his client could show police where they had hidden it.

But the inspector was quick to dismiss this theory. “Normally when someone is robbed in St. Julians there is a report within an hour or two. Several hours later, we are yet to receive his  report about the theft.”

“Furthermore, if he is innocent of theft, he certainly isn’t of breaching bail, as he was out past his curfew,” said the inspector, in closing.

The court, in the light of his bail breach, opted not to release him from arrest.