A man who was arrested by the police on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities has been charged in court with trying to help someone enter Malta illegally.

Magistrate Noel Bartolo heard police inspector Zachary Zammit explain how Syrian national Bashar Mohamad, 29, of Qormi, was arrested at the end of last month after the police received a tipoff about his potential involvement in terrorism.

The tip-off initially did not yield results and the man was released on police bail while the investigations continued.

The inspector said Mohamad was then found in possession of two Maltese passports which he was planning to use when flying out of Malta to Germany. Only one of them was his and the other belonged to a relative.

He said investigators believed that the accused was planning to sell the second passport to someone else while abroad so that it could be used for somebody to enter Malta illegally.

Mohamad was charged with trying to smuggle persons into Malta, assisting them to enter Malta illegally and stealing the second passport found in his possession.

He pleaded not guilty.

Defence lawyers Franco Debono and Adreana Zammit requested bail, insisting that the police had granted their client police bail while they were carrying out their investigations. Mohamad respected the police bail conditions and turned up at the police depot whenever they asked him to.

The prosecution, however, objected to the request, explaining that while the accused was out on police bail, he had spoken to the owner of the passport at the centre of this case, who was a relative.

In view of this, Magistrate Bartolo refused the request because of the possibility of tampering with evidence and the man was remanded in custody.

Police inspectors Hubert Gerada and Christian Abela were also part of the prosecution team.