A Tunisian businessman kept a woman locked up in a Sliema apartment for days and raped her several times a day, a court heard today.
Magistrate Antonio Vella heard how Mohammed El Herzi , 55, a businessman who owns a textile company and who regularly visits Malta, promised the woman a job and then raped her after she refused his marriage proposal.
Mr El Herzi stands charged with trafficking a Tunisian woman, who has an Italian passport, holding her against her will, with raping her and with violently forcing himself on her. He is denying the charges.
As the compilation of evidence against the Tunisian began today, Police Inspector Joseph Busuttil told the court that on September 3 last year, the Vice Squad had been informed that a woman had reported being locked in a Sliema residence for five days and repeatedly raped by Mr El Herzi.
She had told police that the two had met in Palermo on a boat to Tunis and he had offered her a job as a hairdresser in Malta.
Mr El Herzy had paid for the woman’s air tickets and had picked her up at the airport on her arrival.
She had asked the accused in which salon she would be working, but Mr El Herzy instead asked her to marry him. She had refused, saying she barely knew him and had only come to Malta because he had offered her a job.
The inspector said the woman alleged that after refusing his marriage proposal, he locked her up in a Sliema apartment that Mr El Herzy shared with a female flatmate and raped her several times a day. On one occasion he even forced her to wash him in the shower.
Without going into detail on how she had managed to escape, the inspector said she had turned up the police station and filed a report.
When the police began investigating, they discovered that Mr El Herzi and his teenage son had fled Malta as soon as they realised she had escaped and were already in Milan.
A European Arrest Warrant was issued but this was never used as the defendant came back to Malta. He was questioned regarding his possible involvement in pick pocketing and when his details were inputted into the police system, an alert popped up and he was arrested.
While he was under arrest, Mr El Herzy on several occasions complained of chest pains and was taken to Mater Dei Hospital only to be released soon after as nothing wrong was found.
His flatmate told the police that she had noticed that the woman would always be accompanied by the accused or his son. She heard an argument when the victim said she wanted to get a ticket back home and had been told that if she wanted to leave, he could sell her into prostitution to fund her flight home.
At the end of the sitting, defence lawyers Leon Bencini and Joseph Mizzi requested bail but the magistrate turned it down as Mr El Herzi did not offer the necessary guarantees. He was remanded in custody.
The case continues in September.