Jail sentence suspended

An appeal court has suspended a one-month jail term given to a man for injuring his wife after ruling that the suspension of the jail term would control the man's behaviour towards his wife.

Alfred Azzopardi was originally jailed for a month by the Magistrates' Court for slightly injuring his wife Rosalie in Qormi on November 24, 2001.

Azzopardi however appealed, claiming that his wife had provoked him because she stormed into his garage and damaged a client's car. He also claimed that the punishment was not appropriate.

Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano heard how Azzopardi had injured his wife when he pushed her out of the garage and onto her car that was parked outside.

He ruled that even if, for the sake of argument, Azzopardi's wife had damaged the client's car, Azzopardi had no right to lay his hands on her or to push her the way he had.

The chief justice noted that although one could not describe the incident as one of "little moral importance" he could not ignore the fact that Azzopardi's criminal record was clean, except for a Lm2 fine, and that this was the first incident of the sort.