A man who was out on bail pending trial for allegedly being an accomplice in murder, has been placed behind bars after being accused of threatening his girlfriend and damaging her property on Monday.

Ahmed Rasem Franko, a 35-year-old Libyan, is awaiting trial for having, along with another Libyan man, allegedly murdered a Columbian man in Paceville in May 2019. Carlos Augusto, 37, who was in Malta to study English, died after suffering blows to his head with what is believed to have been a glass object in a fight outside a bar in Paceville. It was claimed that he was attacked when he stood up for a woman his two assailants were pestering.

Both men had been arrested after being found hiding in a wardrobe in San Lawrenz, Gozo. 

[attach id=906075 size="medium" align="left" type="image"]Ahmed Rasem Franko.(Picture issued by the police in 2016.)[/attach]

On Tuesday, Franko pleaded not guilty to causing his girlfriend fear of violence, wilfully damaging her property, breaching the peace as well as breaching earlier conditions of bail.

He was also charged with relapsing.

The man had also landed a four-year jail term in 2017 over the attempted rape of a Swedish woman at St George’s Bay, Paceville two years previously. He claimed that they were engaged in a sexual act at St George’s Bay when the woman had a sudden change of heart. The case is pending appeal.

Prosecuting Inspector Trevor Micallef informed the court on Tuesday that although the accused had declared that he lived in Gzira, he had actually been living with his girlfriend at Marsaxlokk.

Defence lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri did not request bail at this stage.

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech remanded the man in custody.