A man was arraigned on Wednesday, believed to have been the ringleader of a gang that broke into a St Paul’s Bay property armed with a knife and a saw and demanded money from its occupant.

Plasterer Salah Sharif, 40, from Tripoli, on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to an attempted armed robbery on July 22 at 7pm. His two accomplices are still on the run.

Inspector Godwin Scerri told the court Mr Sharif held two persons against their will and injured one of the victims. He demanded money but ended up only taking a mobile phone. He was arrested at the scene, but his accomplices escaped.

The accused also pleaded not guilty to slightly injuring a person, aggravated theft of a mobile phone, carrying a knife during the commission of a crime, criminal damage, holding two men against their will and threatening them, and breaching the peace.

Requesting bail, legal aid lawyer Martin Fenech said his client denied involvement in the attack. He had been in Malta for 20 years taking care of his parents and was married and had children. 

“If he was aggressive or violent, he would have slipped up over the past 20 years,” Dr Fenech said.

He added that in the past two decades, his client had retained an unblemished criminal record without so much as a conviction for a traffic offence. He happened to be there at the time the others attacked, the lawyer said.

But Inspector Scerri argued that the police had reliable evidence that the accused was the ringleader of the trio and a number of witnesses who lived near the accused still had to testify.

The investigation into the other two men was also still ongoing, said the inspector, implying that the accused could make contact with them if granted bail.

Magistrate Monica Vella denied bail at this stage, citing the possibility of tampering with evidence as the reason.