A man, allegedly involved in a scuffle at a St Julian's pizzeria in the early hours of Monday morning, was remanded in custody hours later, following his arraignment under arrest.

Badreddin Osyad Fadoussi, a 24-year old chef, residing at Birkirkara, pleaded not guilty to having punched a woman, causing her grievous injuries without intending to endanger her life. The Syrian national was further charged with threatening a man in the course of the same fight.

Other charges stemmed from the man's alleged misconduct at the St Julian’s police station where he allegedly threatened an officer. Later, while at the Floriana health centre, the man involuntarily caused slight injuries to a police constable, threatened him and violently resisted arrest. It is not clear what sparked the fight in the first place. 

Legal aid counsel Noel Cutajar requested the court to order the preservation of CCTV footage retrieved from the sites where the alleged offences took place. The request was duly upheld by the court who appointed an expert to retrieve the footage.

Dr Cutajar also requested bail, stressing the presumption of innocence of his client, the fact that witnesses had not been asked for their version of the incident as well as the fact that his client was alleging he had been the target of racist remarks.

After hearing submissions by both parties, duty magistrate Astrid May Grima turned down the request for bail in view of the nature of the offences, the early stage of the proceedings and the lack of trustworthiness of the accused who had no fixed residence.

Inspector Matthew Spagnol prosecuted.