Two Syrian men charged with bribing immigration officer
Officer accused of accepting bribe
Two Syrian men were yesterday charged with bribing an immigration officer and the officer charged with accepting a bribe.
The officer's name cannot be published by court order while the Syrian men are Hamid Haj Habo, 40, and Hasan H. Hasan Dghaim, 20.
All three were charged with forging seals, stamps or other government marks at the airport on Monday at 5 p.m.
They were also charged with offering or receiving bribes, two counts of forgery, giving false information to the authorities, transferring their passport or receiving someone else's passport, forging or making use of a forged passport and forging an immigration document.
The immigration officer was also charged with committing a crime he was duty bound to prevent while Dghaim was also accused of coming to Malta without leave from the immigration authorities. The officer and Habo were granted bail against a personal guarantee of Lm1,000 while the other Syrian man was remanded in custody.
Police Inspectors Jeffrey Cilia and Neville Xuereb prosecuted.
Dr Raphael Fenech Adami was counsel to the officer and Dr Joseph Brincat was counsel to the Syrian men.