Three young men who allegedly stole jewellery off a man they held up in a car in Pembroke were remanded in custody upon their arraignment on Thursday.

The case allegedly happened on the night of March 12. The victim had told the police that he met two of the alleged aggressors at 1am. They were later joined by a third youth and all four drove to Pembroke.

When they got there, the three youths held the victim against his will and robbed him of two gold necklaces, a bracelet, a watch and a ring.

CCTV footage from the site of the incident in Triq il-Mediterran appeared to confirm the victim’s version, prosecutors told the court.

The three suspects - Saleh Saleh, 20 from Fgura, Mahmoud Farhoud, 21, from Qormi and Mohamed Alkert, 21, from Kirkop - pleaded not guilty to aggravated theft of jewellery worth over €2329.37, holding their victim against his will, slightly injuring him and carrying a knife without a police licence.

Some of the stolen items had been recovered but two necklaces were sold, the court was told. The accused had a clean conduct sheet and had cooperated when questioned by police.

However, the prosecution objected to bail out of fear of tampering with evidence. 

Moreover, after realizing that their victim had gone to the police and before being tracked down, the three youths had fabricated a story to mislead investigators, explained Inspector Lydon Zammit.

Defence lawyer Veronique Dalli countered that at the end of the day, the accused had cooperated and had even helped investigators to retrieve the stolen items.

Moreover, evidence of the incident was partly preserved on CCTV footage.

The accused also had a clean record.

The prosecution’s fear could be balanced out with adequate bail conditions.

Defence lawyer Alfred Abela added that none of the accused had tried to approach any of the prosecution witnesses in the 11-days since the incident.

When a suspect cooperated, that fact ought to be taken into account for bail considerations, added lawyer Mario Mifsud.

Magistrate Rachel Montebello, denied bail, stating that cooperation by the accused was not enough to neutralise the prosecution’s fear of tampering.

Inspectors Lydon Zammit, Stephen Gulia and Brian Xuereb prosecuted.

Lawyer Veronique Dalli was counsel to Farhoud, Alfred Abela and Mario Mifsud were counsel to Saleh while Mifsud alone was counsel to Alkert.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto appeared parte civile.