Two Sicilian fishermen who admitted fishing in Maltese waters have to stay the weekend as the court registry closed at 12.30pm and they could not pay their fine.

The two fishermen, Salvatore Saporito, 29, captain of La Principessa Prima, and  Salvatore Penna, 52, captain of La Madonnina, were arraigned today after they were caught fishing in Maltese waters without the necessary permits yesterday.

They were fined €20,000 each.

But by the time their case was over, the court registry had closed. The fishermen will stay on their boats under police surveillance until Monday.

The €700 worth of prawns and fish they had on their boats were sold by the Department of Fisheries this morning.

Lawyer Charmaine Cherrett represented the fishermen.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.