A 27-year-old Palestinian man is alleged to have repeatedly raped his partner over the span of several months.

Mahmoud Abdelkhadir was arraigned under arrest on Friday and charged with rape, detaining the victim against her will, forcing her into non-consensual sexual acts, grievously injuring her and harassing her, among other charges.

Abdelkhadir and the victim, who cannot be named under court order, have children together.

The accused pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The court, led by Magistrate Gabriella Vella, heard that the man is also alleged to have threatened the woman with violence on multiple occasions.

The case came to the police’s attention on April 17, when the police’s Domestic Violence Unit was alerted that a woman had gone to hospital claiming that her partner had assaulted and raped her.

She subsequently told police officers that he had raped her several times in the past months.

After she gave the police a sworn statement to that effect, officers went to the couple’s home in Cospicua and arrested the man.

Prosecutor Cynthia Tomasuolo asked the court to issue a protection order in the woman’s favour and to also protect her identity by ordering a ban on publication of her name.

The court agreed to those requests, issuing a four-year protection order and prohibiting the defendant from contacting her.

A request by defence lawyer Brandon Lee Muscat to also ban publication of the man’s name was however turned down by the court, after prosecutors said the two do not share the same surname.

The defence did not request bail and the accused was remanded in custody.