Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1516944
THE Criminal Court will try two of the young men indicted for allegedly hijacking an oil tanker that had rescued them, separately from a third co-accused, who the police say, has absconded. The two men, Amara Kromah and Abdalla Bari, are accused of hijacking the El Hiblu 1 and co- ercing its captain into not trans- porting them -together with 108 other people his crew had plucked from the sea - back to Libya, where they faced persecu- tion and torture. The men deny the charges, insisting they had acted as interlocutors between the ship's captain and the rest of the migrants. The Maltese authorities caused an international outcry by insist- ing on defining the incident as "piracy" and charging the three youths - who were just 15, 16 and 19 at the time - with serious of- fences, some under counter-ter- rorism legislation. The three defendants were in- dicted last November, a move which was condemned by sev- eral international human rights bodies, including Amnesty In- ternational and Sea Watch, who had repeatedly called upon the Maltese authorities to drop the charges. In September 2023, the mag- istrate presiding over the com- pilation of evidence issued in- ternational and European arrest warrants for Koni Tiemoko Abdoul Khader, from the Ivory Coast, after her court was in- formed that he had not signed his bail book for six weeks and was presumed to have absconded. Madame Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, after hearing In- spector Omar Zammit testify that to date, the authorities had no information about Khader's whereabouts, upheld the request to separate the cases. Lawyer Malcolm Mifsud told the court that his clients, Abdalla and Amara, were declaring that they were notified with the AG's application for them to be tried separately and were not objecting to the request. The case was adjourned to 12 March. Lawyers Neil Falzon, Cedric Mifsud, Carla Camilleri and Gi- anluca Cappitta are also assisting the accused men. 4 NEWS 4 MATTHEW AGIUS magius@mediatoday.com.mt maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 6 MARCH 2024 Public Notice Intent to Obtain Employment Agency License in relation to the activities of an outsourcing agency. Share Limited, with the registered address Block 10, door 7, Flat 1, Triq il-Gardenja, Santa Lucija, SLC1197 operating out of address being Crave House, Level 1, St. Bernard Street, Marsa, MRS 1330, Malta and company registration number C95625 hereby declares its intent to secure an employment agency license per Legal Notice L.N. 270 of 2023. Specializing in outsourcing of personnel across all industries, Share Ltd is committed to compliance with all regulations. Public Notice Intent to Obtain Employment Agency License in relation to the recruitment of persons for employment in or outside of Malta. Share Limited, with the registered address Block 10, door 7, Flat 1, Triq il-Gardenja, Santa Lucija, SLC1197 operating out of address being Crave House, Level 1, St. Bernard Street, Marsa, MRS 1330, Malta. and company registration number C95625 hereby declares its intent to secure an employment agency license per Legal Notice L.N. 270 of 2023. Specializing in recruitment of personnel across all industries, Share Ltd is committed to compliance with all regulations. Public Notice Intent to Obtain Employment Agency License in relation to the activities of an outsourcing agency. Share Limited, with the registered address Block 10, door 7, Flat 1, Triq il-Gardenja, Santa Lucija, SLC1197 operating out of address being Crave House, Level 1, St. Bernard Street, Marsa, MRS 1330, Malta and company registration number C95625 hereby declares its intent to secure an employment agency license per Legal Notice L.N. 270 of 2023. Specializing in outsourcing of personnel across all industries, Share Ltd is committed to compliance with all regulations. THE man indicted for complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Yor- gen Fenech, has filed yet another request for bail - his 16th - and claimed to have served the longest time in preventive cus- tody in Maltese judicial history. Fenech's lawyers, Gianluca Caruana Curran, Marion Camilleri and Charles Mercieca filed the bail application in the Criminal Court, once again insisting that their client, who has been in preventive custody since his arraignment in Novem- ber 2019, would follow any conditions imposed by the court, including submit- ting to being electronically tagged and placed under house arrest in a property far from the coast, as well as regularly signing a bail book and providing finan- cial guarantees. The lawyers argued that the five years Fenech had so far spent in preventive custody were equivalent to a jail term, and was the longest time an accused per- son had ever spent remanded in custody in Malta. Stressing Fenech's clean criminal record and that his behaviour while in custody had demonstrated his trustworthiness and obedience. All of Fenech's previous bail requests have been refused, his recent one being rejected in August 2023 as the court felt there was a credible flight risk and of a risk of him tampering with evidence. The Court of Criminal Appeal had ruled at the time that the reasons for which the Attor- ney General was objecting to bail had not changed, and that none of the guarantees offered by Fenech effectively mitigated the risk of him absconding. A Constitutional case filed by Fenech, in which he claimed that the repeated refus- als to grant him bail constituted a breach of his human rights was dismissed in 2022. Yorgen Fenech files his 16th bail request Yorgen Fenech is being charged for allegedly masterminding the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia El Hiblu trial: Two accused will be tried separately from third man who absconded The El Hiblu 1 had rescued more than 100 migrants from international waters, including the three young men who were subsequently charged with hijacking the ship