A man who bit and attacked police officers when they tried to help him after finding him unconscious in December was jailed for two years on Tuesday.
The police had found Faraj Mohamed Faraj El Ragig, 33, who lives in Marsa, drunk and passed out.
He groggily woke up as they were calling for assistance and bit the two officers trying to help him, Inpector Robert Vella told the court.
A police constable had testified that, on December 17, he and a colleague had noted Mr El Ragig flat on his back, with cotton wool in his ears and evident facial injuries.
They had tried to speak to him but he didn’t want to talk. While they were calling for an ambulance he got up in a rage shouting Allah hu akbar and tried to punch and bite the officers.
The officers had to use a taser to control him and in the course of being restrained, he bit the two officers.
Mr El Ragig was charged with attacking the police officers, insulting or threatening them during the exercise of their duties, slightly injuring them, breaching the peace, failing to obey legitimate orders and being drunk and incapable of taking care of himself in a public place.
In his statement to the police, he had denied being drunk or attacking the officers and claimed that it was the officers who attacked him.
But the court did not believe the accused, saying the police had no reason to stop other than to help.
"This is the thanks they get," the magistrate noted.
The court noted that the police had not embellished their account and even acknowledged that the accused had calmed down on the way to the police station.
Jailing the accused for two years, Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech noted that the defence had asked for clemency, but said that on the other hand, the accused had shown no remorse for his actions.
His actions could never merit clemency. “If this conduct is allowed to take root and flourish, the country will be the greatest loser… Attacks on the forces of law and order should not be tolerated but should be punished with the greatest severity.”