A man was remanded in custody on Wednesday evening after pleading not guilty to assaulting a bar manager at Spinola last month.

Sasa Cvetkovic, a 46-year-old Serbian national living at Msida, was tracked down through footage and other evidence gathered by police investigators following the incident which took place shortly after midnight on May 12. 

Earlier that evening, a verbal argument involving a Maltese man had broken out at the St Julian’s bar.

The name of the bar was not mentioned in the charges.

The argument was defused, and calm was restored. 

But later, a group of men allegedly entered the bar, asking the manager to accompany them outside. 

That was when the incident took place. 

The manager was attacked and ended up suffering a fractured jaw, broken teeth as well as other injuries. 

His alleged aggressors fled the scene. 

Working on CCTV footage, police managed to track down one of the suspects. 

Phone localisation data placed the accused at the scene at the time of the assault, a court heard on Wednesday when the man was arraigned under arrest. 

He was charged with causing the victim grievous bodily harm as well as breaching the public peace. 

A request for bail was objected to not only in view of the gravity of the offence but also because civilian witnesses were still to testify, and the accused lacked ties in Malta. 

After hearing submissions, the court, presided over by Magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia, turned down the request. 

Inspector Keith Xerri prosecuted. Lawyer Noel Bianco was defence counsel. Lawyer Charles Mercieca appeared parte civile.