Man cleared as charge was time barred

A man who had been fined Lm25 for threatening the chief executive officer of the Foundation for International Studies (FIS), Lino Briguglio, was yesterday acquitted on appeal.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, presiding over the Court of Criminal Appeal, cleared Damien Iwueke of threatening Prof. Briguglio after he ruled that the charge was time barred.

The case revolved around an incident when, in May 2005, Prof. Briguglio found that two football players, Maczerob Okoro and Uchenna Anywanna, had called on Mr Iwueke, a librarian at the FIS. The professor asked the two men to leave as they were not there on official business. On seeing this, Mr Iwueke took offence and criticised Prof. Briguglio who retaliated by terminating his employment. Mr Iwueke reacted by using words that were deemed threatening by the professor.

Following the incident, Mr Iwueke was charged with threatening the professor. In a separate case, Prof. Briguglio was charged with inciting racial hatred.

In a judgement last November, the Magistrates' Court cleared Prof. Briguglio of all charges and fined Mr Iwueke Lm25.

Mr Iwueke appealed, noting that the charge under which he had been found guilty was time barred by the lapse of three months from the date of the commission of the alleged offence.

The court noted that the incident took place on May 20, 2005, and the charge was filed by the police on February, 20, 2006 - nine months later. For this reason Mr Iwueke was cleared of the charge.