Bus driver claims racism in incident with policeman

A bus driver, Muhammed Hamdan, 32 of Syria who has lived in Malta for 20 years, was arraigned in court this morning and accused of having assaulted a policeman.

The incident happened on Sunday afternoon at Ċirkewwa. Police Inspector Therese Sciberras said that Mr Hamdan had a licence number written on a piece of cardboard on his private vehicle. When a policeman stopped him to enquire about it, Mr Hamdan said he had been like that for a week.

The policeman retorted that he should have rectified matters, and booked him. An argument escalated and amid swearing, Mr Hamdan refused to give his particulars and became aggressive.

Defence counsel Anglu Farrugia said this was also a racial incident in which the officer called the accused "zibel and hmieġ".

Inspector Sciberras said this was not the case. She said the whole incident was captured on CCTV.

The accused, who is pleading not guilty, was granted bail against a personal guarantee of €2,000.