Four charged over nightclub brawl

Three Moroccan students and a bouncer appeared in court yesterday following an incident in which all hell broke loose in a Paceville nightclub in the early hours of Tuesday.

On the night of the incident there was a group of 30 Moroccans at Plush Club. They were spending heavily, gave the DJ a pen drive to play their kind of music and were even offered a bottle of champagne on the house, sources said.

At one point, one of them bought cigarettes from a machine and was not given the correct change, the sources said. The barman explained the machine was rented, so he could not give the missing change but offered the student a drink instead, which the Moroccan accepted. However, when he was served, the Moroccan allegedly threw the glass back at the barman. The friendly atmosphere that had prevailed until then was soon over and a fight broke out.

Glass panes in the bar were broken, toilets smashed and three cars parked outside were damaged, the sources said.

Amine Drif, 18, Othmane Nachir, 19, and Mohamed Benchekroun, 23, yesterday denied damaging cars parked near the club and breaching the peace.

The bouncer, Francois Pisani, 41, of Iklin, denied breaking Mr Benchekroun’s arm with a baton and fracturing Mr Nachir’s wrist with the same weapon.

He also pleaded not guilty to slightly injuring 13 members of the group.

Defence lawyer Joe Giglio, for Mr Pisani, told Magistrate Miriam Hayman he was wondering whether his client was boxer Mike Tyson given the manner in which charges were inflated.

After taking into consideration the circumstances of the case, the court granted the accused bail against a personal guarantee of €3,000 and a deposit of €1,000 each.

Police Inspectors Trevor Micallef and Nikolai Sant prosecuted.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Kathleen Grima appeared for the Moroccans.