An airline passenger held at Malta International Airport with some €200,000 of undeclared cash in his possession was granted bail after pleading not guilty upon his arraignment on Wednesday.

Omar Azumi, a 40-year old Maltese national residing in the UK, was singled out by customs officials on Monday just as he was about to board a flight to Istanbul. A customs sniffer dog had reportedly alerted officers to the excessive cash.

The sum of €10,000, the maximum amount allowed by law, was returned to the man. The rest of the cash was seized by customs authorities.

Upon his arraignment, Mr Azumi pleaded not guilty to having breached cash control regulations and made a request for bail.

Prosecuting Inspector Keith Vella did not object to the request as long as strict conditions were imposed so as to ensure that he would attend every court hearing, given the fact that he resided abroad.

Moreover, the prosecution requested that the bail bond would be proportionate to the 25% fine which the accused could face upon conviction. In this case the sum would stand at around €50,000, the inspector said.

Defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi pointed out that in this case there were no civilian witnesses to testify and moreover, the employer of the accused had already justified the legitimate origins of the funds.

After hearing these submissions, the court, Magistrate Neville Camilleri, upheld the request for bail, making it clear however that at this stage he would not grant the accused permission to travel abroad. That would be a matter to be decided by the court which would be assigned the case, the Magistrate explained.

In view of the nature of the charges and after hearing submissions in this regard, the court granted bail against a deposit of €5,000, a personal guarantee of €15,000, and an order to sign the bail book twice a week and to abide by a curfew between 8pm and 6am.