Charged with causing Lm30,000 damage in prison

A Libyan man was yesterday charged with setting a prison cell on fire, causing about Lm30,000 damage at the prison and inciting other inmates to commit a crime two months ago.

Mohammed El Gamoudi Nabel, 28, was also charged with forming part of a crowd of over 10 people to commit a crime, assaulting and threatening police officers and prison guards, seriously injuring guard Philip Galea, slightly injuring Police Inspector Abraham Zammit and disobeying the police at the Corradino Correctional Facility on July 2.

During the arraignment Mr Nabel's lawyer, Giannella Caruana Curran, requested that her client be granted bail.

She told Magistrate Joseph Cassar that Mr Nabel had spent a year in preventive custody in prison and two years under house arrest while awaiting to be tried for dealing in cannabis.

Earlier on this year jurors had cleared him of all charges but his cousin and co-accused in a trial, Salem Suleiman Shoaib Rida, had been found guilty of dealing in the drug and jailed for 22 years.

As Mr Nabel was walking out of court, after the judge in the trial read out judgment, he claimed he noticed a police sergeant smile at him in a mocking way and could not restrain himself from assaulting the sergeant as he felt upset for his cousin with whom he had grown very close.

This led to another case being initiated against Mr Nabel, who was charged with assaulting the sergeant. Mr Nabel spent a further six months in preventive custody while waiting for this case to come to an end. Last week the case was decided and Mr Nabel was jailed for two-and-a-half months and the magistrate ordered that the time he spent in preventive custody be deducted from the jail term which meant he had already served his time.

Police Inspectors Raymond Cassar and Jesmond Borg objected to the granting of bail for fear that Mr Nabel might abscond.

They added that on Thursday he had been stopped by immigration police while trying to leave the island and this when there was an appeal case pending.

Dr Caruana Curran argued that her client had every right to travel as there was no court ruling stopping him from doing so. Moreover, he had proven to be trustworthy as he had not tried to escape while awaiting trial when he was facing life imprisonment.

After hearing submissions, Magistrate Cassar turned down the request for bail.