A man was remanded in custody on Wednesday after pleading not guilty to fracturing another man’s jaw with a pistol after having placed the gun against his head during an argument.

Ian Zammit, 34, from Żejtun, was charged with grievously injuring the man during an argument. The victim's name cannot be published by court order and no details were given in court on the nature of the argument.

The police began investigations last Thursday when the victim went to Zebbuġ police station with his ear covered in blood, explaining that he had had an argument with someone known as is-Sugar, a man very well known to the police.

He told the police that Zammit first pointed the gun at his head, then swung it around and hit him with it, breaking his jaw. He was briefly hospitalised and was unable to speak for three days. 

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech heard how Zammit was meant to be signing a bail book, but since he did not show up, a warrant for his arrest was issued.

Zammit was charged with causing grievous bodily harm, possession and use of a firearm at the time of the commission of a crime, causing the victim to fear violence, relapsing and breaching two bail conditions over separate cases he is facing.

He is also pleading not guilty to drug possession and money laundering, having allegedly flushed drugs down a kitchen sink just before a police search of his apartment.

No request for bail was made and he was remanded in custody. The court also upheld the prosecution’s request for a freezing order upon all assets of the accused.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb were defence counsel.

Zammit is not new to brushes with justice. Apart from drug case, he was out on bail after he was charged with complicity in an arson attack on his ex-girlfriend’s car.

The court presiding over that case had heard that a Macedonian national, who was arrested and charged in court, told police that Zammit, was his drug supplier. He had called Zammit to place an order for cocaine, and later, the two men met near a Birżebbuġa restaurant where the delivery took place.

Later that night, the Macedonian called his supplier a second time. But at the second encounter scheduled at Marsaxlokk at around 3am it was not Zammit who handed over the drugs but another man who refused payment for the drugs but wanted a lift to Birżebbuġa to look out for a Range Rover model.

Having reached Triq il-Ġebel, the Macedonian saw the man approach the vehicle with a jerrycan of fuel and set it alight, the court heard. Zammit denies involvement in the arson.