Two brothers who landed in trouble with police while out clubbing on Monday evening were granted bail upon arraignment while investigations continue against third parties who allegedly triggered the incident.
An argument among youths at an Iklin club spilled outside and led to a physical assault against one of the brothers, their lawyer Arthur Azzopardi explained in court during the pair’s arraignment.
The police were alerted to the commotion.
But when the officers arrived at the scene outside the club, an argument broke during which one of the policemen was slightly injured.
Prosecuting Inspectors Clayton Camilleri and Andrew Agius Bonello explained that the argument outside the club had escalated into a physical fight at around 10pm.
One of the RIU officers was slightly injured and a car was damaged.
But the defence countered that “owing to bad procedural practices by the corps, the police had missed the wood for the trees,” arguing that those who had started the trouble had not yet been prosecuted.
Instead, the brother who had been at the receiving end of the violence and his sibling who had passed some comment in the direction of one of the officers landed under arrest.
They had, subsequently, filed a police report about the violence.
Inspector Camilleri confirmed that one of the brothers had indeed filed a report against the third parties who allegedly sparked the violent incident.
That report was filed on Tuesday and investigations were still at an early stage.
In light of those ongoing investigations, the court, presided over by Magistrate Noel Bartolo, upheld a request by the defence, that was not objected to by the prosecution, for a ban on the brothers’ names.
The two siblings pleaded not guilty to resisting police officers, insulting or threatening them, slightly injuring one of them, failing to obey legitimate orders and breaching public peace.
One of them was separately charged with resisting a constable while his brother was charged with damaging a car.
A request for bail was upheld against a personal guarantee of €5,000 each, signing the bail book twice a week and a curfew.
Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Jacob Magri were defence counsel.