A Tunisian man who was jailed for life for murdering four men in 1988 was yesterday condemned to six more years for stealing a car and resisting arrest when he escaped from prison six years ago.
Mohsen Bin Brahim Mosbah yesterday pleaded guilty to stealing a car in Paola after he and another three men escaped from jail on March 29, 2000, and driving to Ghajn Tuffieha where he broke into an apartment.
He also filed guilty pleas - before Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono at the beginning of his trial - to the possession of a weapon and resisting arrest two days later.
Originally, Mr Mosbah had also been charged with escaping from prison but this charge was dropped after a Constitutional Court ruled that his fundamental rights had been breached because he had already been tried and punished for the escape by the prison's disciplinary board.
On handing down judgement, Mr Justice Galea Debono noted the submissions on punishment put forward by the defence and the prosecution.
Lawyer Lynn Zahra, for Mr Mosbah, noted that her client had filed an early guilty plea.
She noted also that, in a judgement handed down in May 2002, the three men who had escaped with Mr Mosbah - Libyans Aimen Said Giali El Baden and Ibrahim Ramadan Amber Shinsha, and Charles Mugliett of Senglea - had been handed down jail terms ranging between five and six years.
Dr Zahra noted that all three men had been convicted for more charges than her client and this ought to be reflected in his punishment.
The prosecution noted, however, that Mr Mosbah faced a 10-year jail term and called on the court to keep in mind that he was a relapser.
Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono noted that, although Mr Mosbah had filed an early guilty plea, a reduction in punishment was not a hard and fast rule.
In fact, case law read, among other things, that a cut in a jail term can be lost when the protection of the public made it necessary that a long sentence be passed and also when the offender has been caught red-handed and a plea of guilt is practically certain.
The judge noted that one could say Mr Mosbah had been caught red-handed.
The judge moved on to examine Mr Mosbah's criminal record. He had already been convicted of four counts of murder, several counts of theft and the possession of weapons.
"This is a manifest case where the offender, who already committed four murders apart from other serious offences..., and who already escaped from jail three times, is a serious menace to Maltese society and this surely necessitates that he be given a substantially long jail term..."
After evaluating the circumstances and the judgement handed down to Mr Mosbah's three accomplices, the judge jailed him for six years.
Mr Mosbah is currently serving life imprisonment for the murder of four men in 1988. Together with another Tunisian, Ben Ali Wahid Ben Hassine, he had admitted to killing James Reed at Ta' Xbiex on a yacht on February 12, 1988 and Alfred Cucciardi, a taxi driver, on the same night. Then, six days later, they took the lives of taxi driver Alfred Darmanin and of Frenchman Michel Levarlet.
In the eyes of the law, life imprisonment means that Mr Mosbah will be spending the rest of his living days behind bars.
The only way out before death is laid down in articles 493 and 494 of the Criminal Code which allow the court to send a recommendation to the Prime Minister or the President to allow a reduction of the punishment.