Cleared of serious injury charges after spending a year in prison

After a year in prison, a Libyan national was yesterday cleared of seriously injuring another man after the Attorney General admitted the prosecution did not have a case against him.

The prosecution admitted that since the man had been cleared of attempted murder on grounds of self defence he could not be found guilty of seriously injuring another man who tried to stop the fight because the intentional element would also be missing in this case.

In March, Moamr Eltarhuni, 27, was cleared of attempting to kill his friend, Shokri Alalwani in May 2006 after a jury found he had acted in self-defence.

Mr Alalwani had attacked Mr Eltarhuni blaming him of having lost a CD. Defending himself during the scuffle, the accused got hold of a knife and stabbed his friend.

The jury found Mr Eltarhuni guilty of seriously injuring Aimen Al Ghanemi, who tried to separate the two during the fight. He was jailed for a year.

He appealed the judgment with defence lawyer Joe Brincat insisting his client should have been cleared of the serious injury charge given that the jury recognised that the wounds were inflicted on his friend when Mr Eltarhuni was in an agitated mental state as he was acting in self defence. His client simply did not intend hurting Mr Ghanemi.

In the criminal appeals court, presided over by Mr Justice Raymond Pace, Mr Justice David Scicluna and Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon, the Attorney General’s representative conceded that the defence’s arguments were legally correct.

The court ruled the accused did not have the intention to injure Mr Ghanemi who was hit accidentally.

It also ruled that the knife used during the scuffle happened to be close to where the fight broke out and had not been taken there prior to the incident.

Mr Eltarhuni was therefore cleared of all charges brought against him.