A homeless man with hardly enough to eat had his bail revoked on Thursday after failed to sign the bail book.
Maltese-born Mohamed Al Khelfawi, 29, had been granted bail in August 2017, one of the conditions being that of signing the bail book on a daily basis at the Birkirkara police station.
He was arrested on Wednesday by police who had been on his tracks since February, ever since he stopped signing.
At the time, the Magistrates’ Court had been told that the man was residing at a Birkirkara shelter.
However, after several missed appointments, since February 26 this year, the man totally disappeared from the police radar until last weekend he resurfaced in Gozo, where he was taken into police custody.
The man’s defence lawyer, Martin Fenech, explained that his client had nothing to eat and had been unable to travel from Cospicua, where he was residing, to Birkirkara to sign the bail book. He simply lacked the means to do so, Dr Fenech stressed.
However, prosecuting inspector Chantelle Casha rebutted that although she “sympathised” with the man, he could surely have travelled on foot from Cospicua to sign at the Paola police station, informing the officers of his dire situation. “He had even walked from Cospicua to Ċirkewwa in search of a job,” the officer pointed out.
“Preventive arrest must be a measure of last resort,” Dr Fenech argued, adding that his client needed help and that a lack of a fixed residence was not to serve as a deterrent for bail. “Prison is no solution”.
However, the court, presided over by magistrate Gabriella Vella, also remarked that police stations were scattered all over the island, meaning that the man could have gone to any station to inform them of his changed address.
“Bail conditions are imposed for a purpose and are to be observed,” stated the magistrate, turning down the request for bail in view of the fact that the man had no fixed address and also on account of the nature of the charges which concerned a breach of earlier bail conditions.
The court recommended that the director of prison was to grant the man, who was struggling with a medical condition, all necessary help.