Man awaiting appeal requests bail

Gamil Abu Bakr, 39, today filed an application requesting bail until his appeal from a judgement given after jurors last month found him guilty of aiding four Indians in an attempt to escape, is heard.

Mr Abu Bakr has effectively one more year to serve having spent four years in preventive custody. He was also given remission for good conduct.

In his application, he is calling on the Criminal Court of Appeal to grant him bail until the appeal is heard and to take into consideration that he effectively had only one more year to serve.

Now a Maltese citizen, Mr Bakr, arrived as a refugee in 1995, married a Slovenian woman in Malta and they had two children. The wife returned to her home country shortly after the smuggling court case started being heard.