A man facing assault charges had to be dragged along the court’s corridors on Friday after he refused to walk to be taken away to jail.

Ibrahim Mohammad, 20, who has no fixed address in Malta, threw himself onto the ground to prevent the police officers escorting him from taking him to prison. 

“I don’t want to go to jail. I just want to go back to my home country because I’m fed up here,” he said as he tried explaining to Magistrate Charmaine Galea that he was the victim of assault, rather than the perpetrator. 

Repeatedly refusing the assistance of a lawyer, Syrian national Mr Mohammad insisted that he had proof that it was the other man who assaulted him and not the other way around.

He also denied causing damage to other people’s property. 

Police inspector Roderick Agius confirmed that criminal action was also being taken against the other man. 

He said Mr Mohammed had a long list of suspended sentences and court orders, all for similar offences, and had also breached bail conditions during the most recent case. 

The magistrate told the man he could nowhere else except to prison, especially since he was homeless.

Mr Mohammed began shouting inside the courtroom and was quickly escorted outside, where several police officers tried persuading him to calm down. 

As they were escorting him downstairs, he threw himself on the ground and had to be dragged towards the lift to take him to the lock-up in the basement of the law courts building.