Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/567863
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION WEDNESDAY • 9 SEPTEMBER 2015 • ISSUE 432 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY €1.00 EDITORIAL PAGE 10 Newspaper post PAGE 6 Frenchman sentenced for calling President 'bitch' Rudy Bauduin, 32, was arrested on Sunday night after walking into a police station and cursing at a picture of the President MATTHEW AGIUS A court has handed a suspended sentence to a French citizen, who ad- mitted calling the President of Malta "a bitch." Magistrate Josette Demicoli heard that Frenchman Rudy Bauduin, 32, who lives in Gzira and whose mother is Maltese, was arrested on Sunday night after walking into a police sta- tion and cursing at a picture of the President. Inspector Jason Francis Sultana told the court that, on 6 September at around 10:30pm, Bauduin had gone to the Sliema Police Station, of his own accord, to speak to the po- lice. The officer who was speaking to the man could not understand what he was saying, at which point Bau- duin pointed at a photo of the Presi- dent of Malta, which was hanging on the wall of the station and said "that woman is a bitch, the President is a bitch," before turning to walk out of the police station. He was challenged by police as he turned to leave, and when asked, refused to provide identification or give his particulars. When he was warned that this would result in his arrest, Bauduin persisted. The offic- ers informed him that he was then under arrest and ordered him inside the station, but he tried to walk away again, necessitating the police physi- cally to pull him inside. PAGE 2 PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD Marsa rules the waves Marsa emerge victorious in Victory Day regatta SEE PAGE 20 It is illegal to vilify the President of the Republic Malta ready to take in its share of Syrian refugees MIRIAM DALLI AS the European Union mulls a proposal to relocate 120,000 peo- ple on top of a group of 40,000 the European Commission origi- nally proposed in May, Malta is prepared to take in its share of refugees under a proposed 'dis- tribution key' mandated by the European Commission. While the figure of the refugees to be taken by Malta remains unconfirmed, a leaked quota plan prepared by the European Commission suggests that Malta might take in 133 refugees. Faced by a growing number of lives lost at sea, the European Commission had unveiled plans for the relocation of 40,000 refu- gees from Italy and Greece to other EU countries, as well as the resettlement of 20,000 from outside the EU, across the mem- ber states. On the eve of a ministerial council meeting in July, figures released by the United Nations refugee agency showed 137,000 people arriving to Greece, Ita- ly, Malta and Spain, 83% more than in the same time last year. 1,867 people died making the sea crossing, up from 588 a year earlier. Commission President Jean Claude Juncker had described the relocation of 40,000 refugees as "a very modest effort". And yet, by end July, the EU countries had failed to meet the target, agreeing to take about 32,000 of the asylum seekers from Italy and Greece. Whilst thousands of people f leeing wars and persecution in Syria, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Pakistan, Eritrea and other troubled nations attempted to make the dangerous crossing on rickety boats, leaders of the Eu- ropean Union sat round a table disagreeing over sharing the in- f lux of asylum seekers.