A man who kicked up a disturbance at a Marsalforn bar and later turned his aggressiveness upon four police officers, threatening to kill them “one by one,” was jailed and fined after being found guilty by a court in Gozo.

Abdiqani Omar Abdillahi, a 28-year old Somali man residing in Gozo, was arrested after the incident last December during which he had pointed a knife seven times at another man’s chest.

The man, evidently under the influence of drink, had put up a struggle when approached by the police. 

The struggle continued in the police car as he was taken to Victoria police station, with the police having to make two stops when Mr Abdillahi became excessively aggressive, even attempting to bite one of the officers and threatening to kill all four of them “one by one.”

At one point Mr Abdillahi had to be tasered.

He showed no signs of letting up at the police station, manifesting an aggressiveness “such as I had never witnessed,” one sergeant had claimed.

Mr Abdillahi was charged with having violently resisted arrest, threatened the officers, refused to obey their legitimate orders, possessed an unlicensed weapon, disturbing the residents, having been drunk in public as well as relapsing.

The man against whom the accused had pointed his knife, testified how Mr Abdillahi had threatened him after his demand “for certain items” had been turned down.

Magistrate Joseph Mifsud observed that although at the time of the incident the accused had been drunk and his behaviour had been rendered “more aggressive and violent” by the influence of alcohol, he was “conscious of what he was doing and therefore responsible for the natural consequences of his acts.”

He therefore declared Mr Abdillahi guilty, handing him a one-year effective jail term and a €2,000 fine.

The court finally remarked that the accused, having wasted many previous chances to “embark upon the right path,” could not plead drunkenness as an excuse for doing whatever he pleased, at the risk of history repeating itself.