A man caught with €34,000 in cash by customs officials at Malta International Airport was granted bail on Monday.

Spanish resident Ahmed Alhadi Khalleefah Suwah, 40, had just stepped off a flight from Madrid when he was arrested after failing to declare the cash, well in excess of the legal limit of €10,000.

The man had allegedly exited the Blue Channel and went through the ‘nothing to declare’ stating that he only had €5,000. Yet a personal search by officials revealed €34,970 in cash,
€10,000 of which were returned to the passenger, while the rest was seized to be presented in court.

During his arraignment on Monday, the man pleaded not guilty and was granted bail after the court took note of the prosecution’s non-objection, provided that the bail bond covered any eventual fine and that he had a fixed address in Malta.

Defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi further stressed that this offence was not liable to a prison sentence but only to that of a fine.

In view of these submissions, duty magistrate Astrid May Grima upheld the request for bail against a deposit of €10,000, a personal guarantee of €10,000 and an obligation to sign the bail book on a daily basis between 8.00am and 10.00am.

Dr Azzopardi also asked the court to order the MIA security officers to present CCTV footage showing the transfer of the luggage onto the carousel until the passengers went through the customs channels, stating that this was to ensure preservation of said footage in the records of the case.

The court upheld the request.