A defence lawyer this afternoon lashed out at the Attorney General's "anti human rights" mentality for objecting to a bail request filed by a Romanian national simply because he had no ties to the Maltese Islands.
Giannella De Marco complained that the AG's office had to snap out of this mentality as her client's ties to Malta was the simple fact that his country was an EU member state like Malta.
"My client has been under arrest since September 9. Those who made allegations about him testified and no longer live here. The AG's objection that there are no ties with Malta do not make sense as a Romanian is European and this is what the AG's office must get into its mentality.
"It is unfair to leave people with pending proceedings out of their country let alone leave them in prison simply because he was accused of committing a crime in a country which is not his. This mentality has to stop as it violated human rights," she said.
Dr de Marco was making submissions in a case of Alexandru Onofrei, 26, who is pleading not guilty to trafficking a Romanian woman, Mariaca Daresco, forcing her and her friend, Pilaf Anisoara, into prostitution, holding them against their will, living off the earnings of prostitution and running a brothel in San Ġwann.
Magistrate Ian Farrugia postponed the case to tomorrow morning to hand down a decree on bail.
Earlier in the sitting, Police Inspector Sylvana Briffa told the court how the police began to investigate on September 7 when they received a call from a flat in Qormi where it was claimed that a woman was suffering abuse.
"After talking to three women it resulted that both adults were potential victims of human trafficking and prostitution," she said as she explained that one of them, who was a minor, was not involved in the matter.
She said Ms Daresco told the police she would entertain clients and go to dinner with them before having sex, charging €300 for half an hour of intimacy. The fee would also cover dinner, which would last 90 minutes, and the accused kept the money.
She told police it had all started when Mr Onofrei told her he needed money and forced her to take a revealing photograph of herself.
Without her knowledge, he uploaded the image to a website advertising escort services, which he later showed Ms Daresco, and said that from then on she could not take any decisions.
She was given a mobile phone and told to reply to clients who would get the number from the website.
Inspector Briffa said that when her friend, Ms Anisoara, arrived in Malta, she ended up in the same situation and used to prostitute herself in a flat in San Gwann. She used to hand over 40 per cent of her earnings to the accused.
The case continues.