Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/521559
2 MAT THEW AGIUS A court has handed down a conditional discharge to a 26- year-old man after it found him guilty of the simple possession of cannabis, but clearing him of the more serious crime of drug trafficking. The accused was cleared of the second charge after the court noted that the only evidence supporting it was the second of two statements, which the ac- cused had made shortly after his arrest in November 2005. Defence law yers Franco Debo- no and Marion Camilleri had ar- gued that the man was a vulner- able witness who was questioned and released two statements to the police without access to legal assistance. The man was just 17 at the time of the offence, and as a conse- quence cannot be named. Magistrate Natasha Galea Sci- berras was told that the man had been arrested at an AFM road- block during the night of 3 No- vember, 2005. He was found to be in possession of five blocks of cannabis resin. He had tried to avoid detection by throwing them out of the window as the car in which he was travelling approached the checkpoint but was spotted doing so by police. He later owned up to having done so. In total, police found him to have been in possession of 15.31g of the drug. He had released his first state- ment between 11and 11.30pm on the day of his arrest, releasing the second statement between 1.30 and 2pm the next day. The court heard that, after making his first statement, the accused refused to sign it, saying that he was scared. The accused told the court that while the police had not raised their voices at him or threatened him, several policemen who were walking in and out of where he was being held had added to his terror, telling him that his charges would be changed to re- f lect the more serious charge of trafficking. This had led him to release the second statement, he claimed. Magistrate Sciberras held that the accused was a vulnerable wit- ness at the time, as he had never experienced such a situation be- fore and had been questioned alone, without the support of his parents or the assistance of a law yer. She declared his state- ment inadmissible. There was a risk that, were it to rely solely on his statement, the court could well find him guilty of a crime he had not committed. The magistrate noted that the accused had consistently repeat- ed that the cannabis was only for his personal use and that he had bought five blocks because economies of scale dictated that it would cost him less to buy large amounts. The magistrate held that the accused 's account was the more credible one, finding him guilty only of simple possession of cannabis and conditionally dis- charging him for a year. maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 3 JUNE 2015 News Swieqi man jailed for possession of child porn 37-year-old man jailed for 42 months and will have to undergo three years of treatment after admitting to charges of possession of indecent images of children MATTHEW AGIUS A 37-year-old man was jailed for 42 months and will have to un- dergo three years of treatment after he admitted to charges of possession of indecent images of children, and assaulting and bit- ing a police officer who caught him in possession of some 200 photographs of naked children found on a memory card last month. Police inspectors Sylvana Briffa and Edel Mary Camilleri had ar- raigned Keith Falzon from Swieqi on May 18, charging him with possessing indecent images of children and resisting arrest. He admitted to the possession of the photographs. Sources said the indecent photographs were of nude children but were not hardcore child porn. He also pleaded guilty to diso- beying police orders. When he had been approached by the po- lice, Falzon resisted arrest and a policeman's ear had been bitten during the ensuing struggle. In his considerations on sen- tencing, Magistrate Neville Camilleri took into account the serious nature of the offences as well as the fact that Falzon had filed an early guilty plea. He fined him €4,500, and im- prisoned him for 24 months, ordering that an 18-month sus- pended jail term be rendered ef- fective – bringing his total prison sentence to 42 months. He also placed the accused under a treat- ment order for three years and ordered the destruction of the pornographic material. The man is also to be listed on the sex of- fenders' register. Lawyer Roberto Montalto ap- peared for Falzon. Family demands fair rent from Qormi Labour club Labour Party club pays just €197 in annual rent MAT THEW VELLA THE owners of the Labour Par- ty's club in Qormi have asked a court to force the party to up- date the rent payable to them or evict the tenants. The applicants – Clothilde Borg, Carmen Mizzi, Joseph Mizzi, Salvinu Mizzi, Vincent Mizzi, Isabelle Mercieca, Ce- cilia Dalli and Felicita Micallef – demanded that the court rec- ognises a breach of their right to enjoy their private property because they were unable at law to increase the annual €197 rent payable to them, and either evict the tenants or update the rent payable according to cur- rent market prices. The application was filed by law yer Jason Azzopardi, the shadow minister for justice. The family had originally rent- ed out the premises to the MLP in 1951 for Lm65 a year and then increased only to Lm85 in 2002 – or €197 a year – after the death of their mother. The plaintiffs said that the rent being paid was a risible amount that did not ref lect the real value of the property, and protested that Maltese rent laws prohibiting them from raising the rent were prejudicing their rights. HAVE YOUR SAY 4JHOVQBOEMPHPOUP.50CTFSWFSBOEIBWFZPVSTBZPO FWFSZUIJOHGSPNDVSSFOUBõBJSTUPMPDBMUSFOETXJUIUIF DIBODFUPXJOQSJ[FTJOPVSXFFLMZDPNQFUJUJPOT.50CTFSWFS JTZPVSDIBODFUPDPOUSJCVUFUPUIFGBTUQBDFEXPSMEPGUIF NFEJBBOEMFOEZPVSWPJDFUPUIFEJTDVTTJPO 7JTJUPCTFSWFSNBMUBUPEBZDPNNU Youth conditionally discharged over cannabis possession The court acquitted the man of drug trafficking after it deemed his statement to the police inadmissible, as he was not given access to a lawyer