A 22-year-old Somali who lives at Hal Far was today jailed for seven months for slightly injuring a police officer with the door of an unmarked police car last Sunday.

Police Inspector Sarah Magri told Magistrate Carol Peralta that the incident happened when an argument broke out between a group of immigrants and a group of Maltese nationals at Marsa.

Insp. Magri said plain clothes policemen were on the scene during the argument.

Mr Eided was terribly drunk and could not remember what had happened or what he had done.

She said that, unfortunately incidents against police officers were frequent and she felt that a message had to be sent that these crimes were not tolerated and would be dealt with severely.

This was the third time Mr Eided had been taken to court on similar charges, she said.

Standing in the dock wearing a T-shirt with the words “I gave up drink, smoking and sex” and in smaller font “The worst hour of my life”, Mr Eided pleaded guilty.

Magistrate Peralta said that once Mr Eided was a guest in this country he had to obey the rules like everybody else and the punishment being meted out to him was the same as would have been given to a Maltese person.