A Somali man is still in jail struggling with court bureaucracy more than a week on from being led to believe he could leave after being held for five years without a conviction.
We see people charged with the most hideous crimes being bailed, but here is a man sitting in jail for five years because of bad representation
“Every day feels like an eternity... I’m going crazy in here,” Osman Omar told The Sunday Times from Corradino.
The 31-year-old Somali has spent virtually enough time in prison to serve out a sentence for the charge he is facing – complicity to rape.
Yet despite the likelihood of him walking free in the event of a conviction, he refuses to plead guilty and vehemently protests his innocence.
He is fighting to clear his name with the help of English couple Michael Owen and Jeremy Cope, who have stepped in to offer financial assistance.
The men have offered to put up a financial guarantee that will make it possible for Mr Omar to qualify for bail, but bureaucratic problems have stalled the process.
A note to the judge was filed on behalf of Mr Cope early last week but the judge presiding over the case sent the matter to the Attorney General for his comments.
Following his reply, the judge decided to ask for evidence of Mr Cope’s financial standing, which sent the two back to the drawing board since they had to obtain references from their bank and evidence of their conduct.
“Omar’s son, who is now almost eight years old, has missed having his father for five of these most formative early years of his life. Should Omar now be found not guilty, what compensation would begin to redress the injustice to all family members?” Mr Cope said.
Mr Owen took issue with legal system, which, he said, clearly had an in-built bias against foreigners being granted bail – an issue which has been raised time and again.
“We read The Times every day and we see people charged with the most hideous crimes being bailed, but here is this man sitting in jail for five years because of bad representation (he had legal aid lawyers before the couple stepped in to change his lawyers) and because the system basically let him down.”
The pair are convinced of Mr Omar’s innocence. They knew him before he was jailed through odd jobs he would do for them at their Żejtun farmhouse and were convinced he was telling the truth when they first visited him in jail.
“What’s more, the DNA proved negative. Even if he were guilty, which we are convinced he isn’t, justice should have been done in five years,” Mr Cope said.
The case goes back to 2007, when a Maltese woman was gang raped by three African men in the precincts of the Marsa Open Centre. Mr Omar was charged, along with another two Somalis and a Sudanese man, of complicity.
DNA samples were taken but proved negative, unlike two of the co-accused, whose semen was found on the victim.
The only evidence that ever connected Mr Omar to the case was the testimony of a friend of the victim who said that at one point, he had seen Mr Omar carry the woman.
The victim herself – who was severely drunk throughout the ordeal – corroborated her friend’s version but none of them placed Mr Omar at the scene of the rape at any point in time.
Lawyers Marion Camilleri and Franco Debono are now representing Mr Omar.