A Malian man was tantalisingly close to fulfilling his wish of leaving the island when he was caught by the police inside the cabin of a truck after they intercepted the catamaran just as it was heading out of Grand Harbour.
The Virtù Ferries boat to Sicily had just left the quay at the Valletta Waterfront on Wednesday when police officers, acting on a tip-off, arrived and signalled to the captain to re-dock, Police Inspectors Mario Haber and Edel Mary Camilleri told the court in two separate arraignments.
The officers boarded and found 28-year-old Toure Nuha hiding inside a trailer truck, whose driver was 27-year-old Simon Haber. Mr Haber was upstairs at the time. Mr Nuha told the police that he was going to pay Mr Haber €1,300 on arrival.
In yesterday’s arraignment, Mr Nuha pleaded guilty to failing to furnish immigration officers with the necessary travel documents. Legal aid lawyer Cedric Mifsud told the court that his client had helped the police, was willing to testify against Mr Haber and had admitted at an early stage of the proceedings.
Magistrate Giovanni Grixti jailed him for six months after Inspector Camilleri asked for a stiff sentence to act as a deterrent.
As Mr Haber’s arraignment got under way, on charges of person smuggling and conspiring to commit a crime, his lawyer was called into the court room but failed to show up.
Magistrate Grixti went ahead with the arraignment, asked the accused if he was guilty, to which Mr Haber replied in the negative, and remanded him in custody.
Once the arraignment was over, his lawyer Joe Giglio walked in, having been told the arraignment was to take place half an hour later than it started. He immediately filed an application for bail which is expected to be decided today.
The men’s arraignment comes two weeks after another Maltese man, Angelo Bilocca, 31, was accused of conspiring with another three men, Malians Adama Bagayoko, 20, Abdulaziz Seven, 30, and Musa Sangare, 23, to traffic persons out of Malta.
The three immigrants were remanded in custody while Mr Bilocca was granted bail.