The 17-year-old Somali who was beaten last week in an unprovoked roadside attack tells Kurt Sansone that he is afraid to return to Ħal Far.

Abditafah Mohamed was cycling along the main road in Ħal Far with a friend last Monday night when a black car pulled over beside the pavement. Three men got out and attacked them.

The friend managed to escape and ran back to the open centre to ask for help. Mr Mohamed was less fortunate.

With the help of a Somali interpreter he recounts what happened. His broken eyes stare into emptiness as he remembers how he was hit hard on the back of his head behind his right ear.

"I fell to the ground and my head felt dizzy. They continued to hit me. I was seeing but my head was spinning. I don't know what they hit me with or whether they were kicking me. I recall them putting me in the middle of the road before they left."

The attack left him with head injuries. His right eye is still bloodshot and doctors told him that he suffered internal bleeding in his head and ribs.

"I am doing well," he said, evidently trying to sound much better than he actually is. He describes the attackers as "young and very strong" and recalls seeing them with "things" in their hands. "They were using angry Maltese words. They were not kind people," he said.

The attack did not last more than five minutes but it was long enough. Almost five days later Mr Mohamed said he was scared to go back to the Ħal Far open centre.

"I feel that my life is in danger. I am scared and I do not know where I will go and what to do. I'm not going back to Ħal Far. It is a dangerous place. The government will decide where to put me," he said, obviously agitated.

Mr Mohamed does not know what the motivation for the attack might have been. After beating him up the aggressors stole his wallet, mobile phone and ID card.

"If they just wanted my money they wouldn't have tried to kill me and put me in the middle of the street," he said.

Contrary to what was initially reported last week, a man on a motorcycle found Mr Mohamed lying in the middle of the road.

A police statement had said that when the police were assisting Mr Mohamed a man riding a motorcycle had mistook the scene for a roadblock and drove by the side trampling over the Somali's legs.

From underneath the bed sheets he exposes his legs. There are no visible injuries.

According to Mr Mohamed, his friends, who arrived on the spot soon after, saw the man helping him.

"I would like to publicly thank this man because from what my friends told me he stopped in the middle of the road to make sure cars did not hit me and he also called the police. I do not know who he is," Mr Mohamed says.

He added that the police had not yet spoken to him about the incident but he hoped they would do everything in their power to catch these men.

"People are not all the same. Some are good, some are bad. However, I am scared to stay in Malta," he said when asked whether the incident had changed his impression of Maltese people.

Mr Mohamed arrived in Malta in July 2008. He was granted freedom from detention last January and was transferred to the Ħal Far open centre, the place he now does not want to return to for fear of his life.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com