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9 News / Letters maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 15 JANUARY 2014 Syrian charged with raping ex-girlfriend A 31-year-old Syrian national living in Marsaskala was remanded in custody after pleading not guilty to 19 charges including rape, attempted grievous bodily harm, damaging of private property and threatening his former girlfriend. Inspector Trevor Micallef and Melvyn Camilleri explained that the man had been wanted by the police since July 2012. "Although he knew he was wanted and there were various arrest warrants against him, not only did he stay in hiding but bluffed with third parties about how he was taking the police for a ride," the inspectors said. The man is charged with raping his former girlfriend, slightly injuring her, attempting to cause her grievous bodily harm, damaging her vehicle and stealing her laptop, threatening and assaulting her relatives, damaging private property, being in Malta without a legal permit and forging public documents. The prosecution recounted that the Syrian national, who works as a plasterer, had married a Maltese woman but separated from her over eight years ago. Following the dissolution of his marriage he was denied a residence permit and Maltese citizenship, however he stayed in Malta illegally. Subsequently he had a relationship with another person and moved in with her. He also forged an identity card and a passport on his brother's name. The police have still not retrieved the forged documents. Defence lawyer Kenneth Grima requested bail for the accused, claiming he has no reason to abscond and was himself a victim in the case. "He lived with the alleged victim for eight years. When he caught her frequenting another man and a woman, he left her and as revenge she filed against him claiming he raped her," the lawyer said. Dr Grima argued that the allegation of rape was an attitude adopted by many who felt injured after the end of a relationship, but that the offence was difficult to prove, particularly given that the couple Substantial increase in postage rates 'due to past losses' ty," Inspector Camilleri explained. Furthermore the victim was so scared of her aggressor she did not report the rape. "It only came to light through our investigations. There was a history of domestic violence which the girlfriend kept trying to forgive." Allegedly the accused also created a fake Facebook profile aimed at showing his girlfriend as being a bi-sexual. The profile has since been taken off the web. Magistrate Charmaine Galea denied bail and remanded the accused in custody. Inspectors Melvyn Camilleri and Trevor Micallef prosecuted, while lawyer Kenneth Grima appeared for the accused. Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. Persistent unprofessional conduct JAMES J. PISCOPO THE increase in postage rates was necessary to make MaltaPost's service sustainable, a spokesperson for the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) told MaltaToday. Local mail remained unchanged at 26c but increases from 32c to 42c for letters weighing 50-100g. "The authority wanted to balance the consumer's interest and the sustainability of the operator. We had to take into consideration several factors, such as the continuous drop in local post and recent developments which negatively affected MaltaPost's service of international mail," an MCA spokesperson said. The increases in prices include a 50% and 200% increase in newspaper post. The spokesperson justified this substantial increase, underlining that this service was registering financial loss to MaltaPost. "Newspaper post was no longer sustainable, prices had to be revised. Despite this, the MCA was conscious of the social aspect of this service and thus MaltaPost's requests were only partly approved," she said. had had an intimate relation of eight years. "The prosecution has not exhibited a medical report, nor any proof of violence suffered by the woman. What if doctors later inform the court that there was no rape?" he asked. However the prosecution objected to the request for bail, stating that the accused was not trustworthy. "The facts are different that what the defence is claiming," the prosecuting inspector said. "Not only did the accused threaten and physically abuse his girlfriend, but when she did not pay him for the car he allegedly bought her, he burnt the vehicle, not caring about damaging other people's proper- Since not all the proposed revisions were approved, MaltaPost did not agree with the MCA's conclusions. It noted that the proposed tariff changes are a step in the right direction but argued that they are not enough. In the MCA's final decision published on 24 December, MaltaPost is also quoted saying that further changes in prices would be re- quired by 1 October 2014. Contacted by this newspaper, MaltaPost remained tight-lipped on price increases and refused to answer questions for the past week. Other increases approved in the past weeks also affected letter mail to Europe, climbing from 37c to 59c for 20g letters; and for international registered mail, from €2.25 to €3. REFERENCE is made to the article appearing in this paper on Wednesday, 8 January 2014 entitled 'Small Business Act is not working' written by Dr Marilyn Mifsud, lawyer at PKF Malta, where once again the Central Bank is being subjected to mudslinging for its award of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) tender. The readers of this paper should be made aware that Marilyn Mifsud, following in the footsteps of her boss George Mangion who has on more than one occasion condemned the Central Bank for not awarding the tender to his company, is a paid employee of PKF Malta and its affiliate Risk Importers of hand-knotted Oriental carpets Management Services Ltd (the latter being the SME referred to by Dr Mifsud in her article) and was actively involved in the HFCS tender process as legal adviser of Risk Management Services Ltd. While the Central Bank is not in a position to shed light on the other cases mentioned by Dr Mifsud in her article where SMEs suffered at the hands of other authorities, the Central Bank can confirm that price was not the only criterion for the award of the HFCS tender. Risk Management Services did not have the technical capabilities to undertake the survey and therefore failed on that account when compared with the other SME bidders. Mifsud, being a paid employee of Risk Management Services, is hardly in a position to make an objective critique of the results of the evaluation made by the Bank's Evaluation Panel in respect of this tender. Mifsud again tries to implicate the Central Bank's Deputy Governor in the award of the tender and again the Bank reiterates that the Deputy Governor was not involved in the decision of the Evaluation Panel. While the Central Bank has given full consideration to ensure a professional attitude in its analysis of the HFCS tender, it is a pity that Dr Mifsud does not appear to demonstrate the same approach in her newspaper articles. Stephen Attard Head Communications Department Central Bank of Malta Download the MaltaToday App now THE FLYING CARPET - OLD RAILWAY TRACK, ATTARD

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