Man cleared of burglary on appeal

An appeal court has cleared a Tunisian national of stealing several items from a Sliema apartment but found him guilty of handling the stolen property.

The Magistrates' Court had found Maatoug Amor Ben Mohammed guilty of burgling the apartment together with another person and stealing several items - including clothes, electronic equipment and a passport - to the detriment of two Swedish men on September 23, 2001.

He was also found guilty of the illegal possession of the stolen passport and committing the crime during the operative time of a one-year suspended jail term. The Magistrates' Court jailed him for three years and ordered that the suspended jail term be put into effect.

After Mr Mohammed filed an appeal, Mr Justice David Scicluna in the Court of Criminal Appeal evaluated the evidence.

One of the Swedes did not recognise Mr Mohammed to be any of the two intruders he found in his Sliema apartment. Apart from that, the judge noted, Mr Mohammed always denied breaking into the apartment.

The fact that stolen items were found in his possession did not necessarily mean he had stolen them.

The judge found that, although it had been sufficiently proven that Mr Mohammed had handled the stolen items, it had not been sufficiently proven that he had burgled the apartment.

The judge jailed Mr Mohammed for two years and nine months.