Migrant says he was trying to escape Malta to see his wife

An Ethiopian immigrant was today conditionally discharged for a year after he admitted to trying to leave Malta illegally in a trailer on a ship bound for Italy.

Police Inspector Edel Mary Camilleri, prosecuting, said that the migrant, Jacob Mussie Menghesa, 31, who was a resident of the Good Shepherd Home in Balzan, had said he was trying to go to Italy to be reunited with his wife. Nonetheless, the inspector said, one could not go about trying to achieve his aims through illegal means.

Defence counsel Mark Busuttil called on the court to show its sensitive side. "He was trying to do something noble and correct in trying to rejoin his family, but he did it in the wrong way."

The court conditionally discharged the accused.