The Libyan Embassy has flatly denied it offered to pay the bail deposit for a Libyan man who was charged with smuggling a sachet of heroin into prison.
The issue was first raised in court on Friday when Tarek Ibrahim Alshlmani, 42, who suffers from serious medical problems, pleaded not guilty to the drug trafficking charges.
During the arraignment, a man in a blue suit was seen getting up and walking over to Mr Alshlmani’s defence lawyer, Veronique Dalli, and speaking to her.
Following this, the lawyer said she had been informed by an official from the Libyan Embassy that, if the court were to grant bail, the embassy would pay for any deposit.
The same man said Mr Alshlmani was staying at the Vivaldi Hotel and his accommodation was fully paid for by the embassy.
Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras denied bail after hearing submissions by Johann Fenech and Jurgen Vella who highlighted that the accused had no ties to Malta and might leave.
In a statement yesterday, the embassy said it first got to know about the case from the media and declared that “it never, whether directly or indirectly, offered to subsidise the payment of bail if it was granted to the accused by the competent court”.
Neither had it authorised anyone to make a statement to this effect on its behalf during the arraignment of the suspect before the Magistrates’ Court, the embassy said.
When it came to the allegation that the embassy was paying for the accommodation of the accused, it said this was being done through the Libyan Government – for the accused and his fellow countrymen.
It was a service that Libyans who were injured during the War of Dignity in 2011 were availing themselves of and on which the governments of Libya and Malta had an agreement. These Libyans were in Malta temporarily to receive medical treatment, the embassy said.
It said that following an exhaustive investigation into the “reprehensible incident” that occurred in court, and the identification of the person involved, it transpired that he did not have diplomatic status and had no connection to the embassy.
The embassy reserved the right to institute legal proceedings against this person who in an “exceedingly abusive manner purported to represent the Embassy of Libya”.