The black Hungarian student who was briefly arrested in an incident at the Valletta bus terminus last week has filed a criminal complaint against the woman who slapped and spat at him. 

In his criminal complaint, filed on his behalf by lawyer Roberto Montalto, Jack Daboma called on the Police Commissioner to charge the 29-year-old Valletta woman with inciting racial hatred. The woman turned herself into the police last week, days after her photograph appeared on the media. 

Mr Daboma insisted that the police should charge the woman with inciting racial hatred, with slightly injuring him and with making malicious, false accusations against him. He explained that the woman, whose identity he still did not know, had filed a "pre-emptive" criminal complaint against him, where she "purposely and knowingly made a number of false allegations" against him. 

The incident took place on July 1 July, on the day when the Tallinja cards system was launched, resulting in chaos. The incident, which was captured on camera, happened as Mr Daboma attempted to organise the queue of people waiting outside the Malta Public Transport kiosk at the Valletta bus terminus. 

He claimed that people had been standing in the scorching sun for two hours in the same spot to top-up their cards.

Police footage shows that Mr Daboma was detained on site when Rapid Intervention Unit police arrived. His handcuffs were removed almost five minutes later after TVM journalist Brandon Pisani, who was on site, intervened and explained to the police what had just happened.

The controversial arrest was captured on camera but the officers are claiming that they acted appropriately and based their actions on what people told them when people claimed that Mr Daboma had instigated the incident.

 

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