A man, remanded in custody days ago after drugs were found inside a large loudspeaker at roof level of a Marsalforn apartment block, has been granted bail.

While court proceedings are still suspended as a precautionary measure to combat the spread of COVID-19, the judicial machinery continues to handle urgent cases such as arraignments and requests by those remanded in custody to be released from preventive arrest. 

Legal notice 65 of 2020 had ordered the closure of the courts and court registry for an indefinite period starting on March 16, save for matters of public interest and urgent cases. 

Among these was an application filed by the lawyers of a man, Hanibal N Bashir Mohamed, a 33-year-old Libyan living in Gozo, targeted in a raid by the Drug Squad some days ago.

Acting upon an anonymous tip-off about suspect illicit drug activity, police officers had searched the man’s Marsalforn flat where they came across some cannabis joints.

At roof level, the officers had discovered some 300 grams of cannabis and around 20 grams of cocaine, tucked away inside a sizeable loudspeaker, lying in a common part of the block.

Mohamed had pleaded not guilty upon his arraignment to charges of possession of cocaine and cannabis under circumstances indicating that the drugs were not for his personal use.

His bail request at arraignment stage was turned down after strong objection by the prosecution.

In their urgent bail application, lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia stressed upon the presumption of innocence and the fact that their client had an alternative address in Malta where he could live while criminal proceedings were ongoing.

In the light of such assurance, the prosecution raised no further objections to bail.

In a decree delivered in chambers, the Court, presided over by magistrate Joseph Mifsud, upheld the request, strictly ordering the accused not to cross over to Gozo while under bail and imposing a deposit of €2,000, a personal guarantee of €10,000, the signing of the bail book three times a week as well as a curfew. 

The defence had also pointed out that, in terms of a recently introduced precautionary measure, those remanded in custody were being detained at the courts’ lockup for a quarantine period of 14 days, before being admitted to the state prison. 

However, sources told Times of Malta that such a measure has now been tweaked, so that detainees are first swabbed upon admission to the lockup and moved to the Corradino Correctional Facility upon testing negative to COVID-19.