Another five homeless men charged with vagrancy and begging
Thirteen were arraigned earlier this week
Five homeless individuals were arraigned on Tuesday afternoon and charged with living a life of idleness and vagrancy.
Seven individuals were initially set to be arraigned, but police inspector Gabria Gatt informed the court that one of the suspects had been admitted to Mater Dei Hospital.
Another suspect, a 36-year-old Romanian woman, was not arraigned because an interpreter had a car accident and could not make it to the court.
The rest, five men aged between 29 and 50, from Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya and Sudan, appeared individually before magistrate Abigail Critien, except for two Somalis who were arraigned together.
All of them pleaded not guilty except for the two Somali nationals who were accused of begging in St Julian’s.
Inspector Gatt referred to judgments handed down earlier this week against 13 homeless individuals who were arraigned on identical charges and sentenced to two months' detention, and requested a similar judgement.
The defence requested that such a judgement be sent to the justice minister, the home affairs minister and the social policy minister, to bring to their attention the situation such people find themselves in, so that they could be assisted, thus avoiding repeat offences.
The defence did not request bail and the accused were remanded in custody pending sentencing.
Legal aid lawyer Nadya Fiott assisted the accused.