Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/824559
maltatoday, TUESDAY, 16 MAY 2017 4 News Party leaders woo hunters YANNICK PACE TIM DIACONO PRIME Minister Joseph Muscat has said that if the European Court of Justice (ECJ) were to de- cide against bird trapping the decision would be re- spected and the autumn trapping season would not be opened. Last week, it was re- vealed that the Ornis Committee would be recommending to the government the opening of the finch-trapping sea- son in autumn, despite the fact that Malta is cur- rently awaiting a decision by the ECJ on the matter. The practice was banned in Malta in 2009, but was reintroduced by the Muscat administra- tion in 2014. Nationalist Party lead- er Simon Busuttil has criticised the decision, arguing that this would weaken Malta's position as it attempts to convince the courts that the prac- tice should be allowed to continue. He insisted that Muscat did not care about hunters and trap- pers and was merely try- ing to save his own skin. "Court decisions are court decisions," Mus- cat said when pressed by MaltaToday. "What is certain is that trappers, as well as environmen- talists, know where they stand with us. We don't play both sides." Muscat said that he had been criticised in the past for taking a position in favour of hunting and trapping despite having been the "Prime Minister that closed the hunting season when it was nec- essary". Furthermore, the Prime Minister said it was also time to revise local laws governing fines for hunt- ers and trappers. "I think the way in which fines are admin- istered is draconian and should be revised because European court decision on finch trapping will be respected – Muscat The war has now shifted to how committed to hunters and trappers are the PL and PN Defence lambasts police failure to investigate claims of indecent assault DEFENCE lawyers have raised ques- tions about police handling of a case in which a woman who was grabbed by the throat and thrown down a flight of steps by bouncers at a Paceville night- club in 2015, ended up being charged with assaulting police officers, whilst the heavy-handed security staff were not questioned by police. Semira Tabone Grech's voice wavered at times as she testified before Mag- istrate Antonio Micallef Trigona in a case where she and a male companion stand accused of violently resisting ar- rest, disobeying lawful police orders, insulting, threatening and slightly in- juring a number of police officers as well as breaching the peace. The court was told that on 7 Novem- ber, 2015, the woman had been har- assed by one of the club's patrons as she waited at the bar inside the Havana nightclub. But when she complained, she was assaulted by club security, she said. "The security guard grabbed me by the neck and threw me down the stairs." Outside the club, four female police officers lost no time in arrest- ing the timid and slightly-built woman, who said she had been in the grip of an anxiety attack at the time. Tabone Grech alleged that whilst she was in the police car, the two escorting women police constables had manhan- dled her, mocked the handcuffed wom- an's inability to speak Maltese well and refused to put her seatbelt on. They had also failed to give her a reason for her arrest, she said. Asked in court whether she had much to drink that night, she said that at that point she had "only had two glasses of champagne and a glass of wine." She denied assaulting or biting the officers. "I absolutely did not touch the police. I was in a state of panic and the situation was made worse by the offic- ers putting all their weight on me," the woman said. Her fiancé and co-accused Moham- med Zawia Abdussalam Bheeh also took the witness stand yesterday. The court asked the man what his reaction to being removed from the nightclub had been. "I went outside by myself and when I did, I see Semira on the floor and four policewomen around her. I came to explain to the police. They didn't try to listen to us. She was crying because she has very bad anxi- ety but no one listened to us." Of the man who had allegedly har- assed the girl inside the club, he said he "went up to him and said 'don't touch' and I went to get security." "When I went to speak to the secu- rity guard, I saw another security guard taking Semira outside." Bheeh denied insulting the police officers. "I didn't even speak to the normal guy on the stairs, I wouldn't speak badly to the police." He was escorted to the po- lice station in a different car, he said, al- leging that the officers beat him. "I was trying to speak to him but he didn't listen to me... he was hitting me on my ankle and my shoulder. He was hitting me and hitting me. I was bruised." "I was just trying to tell them that she's my fiancée. I was upset but I didn't shout or touch them. They arrested me just like that." The accused woman's mother, Sara Grech took the witness stand to exhibit a number of photographs of her daugh- ter's injuries, which she had taken her- self. In his closing submissions, pros- ecuting police inspector Elton Taliana stressed that "the incident, in truth, started inside Havana." The two ac- cused had a violent incident with the club security and her injuries could have been caused by this. She had told the court that she had been thrown down the stairs, he pointed out. "You can imagine the pressure on police officers in Paceville. Instead of being told what had happened, the of- ficers say that they had been verbally abused and had suffered some injuries... in the circumstances, I remind that they weren't in Gudja village square, this was Paceville at 1am – there is a lot of pressure. The police must maintain order and when things escalate the po- lice must intervene," the inspector said, adding that the police could not be held responsible for miscommunications. In his closing arguments, lawyer Vince Micallef, who is defending the accused together with lawyer Stefanie Abela, said there was no reason to dis- believe the woman's account and that of her fiancé, as their testimony was near-identical. "We have a young man and woman having a drink at a bar and a third party comes to harass her in the most inappropriate manner. What hap- pened? Look at my client's demeanour. He goes for protection to the security, in the meantime she is tossed outside." The lawyer expressed surprise that no charges had been pressed against any- one else, adding that police officers had been evasive when asked in cross ex- amination if anyone had been arrested for the indecent assault. "Even the police had testified that there had been a disturbance involv- ing the security guards… I ask where are the security guards in these pro- ceedings? There is no testimony. The guards were never arraigned and neither had any of the police officers at the scene bothered to take down their details. "One musn't forget: I'm having a drink with my wife, a man acts inde- cently towards her, so I go to get se- curity, only to return to find her sur- rounded by bouncers, one of whom grabs her by the throat and throws her down the stairs... and the police, instead of assisting me or hearing those involved choose, despite her anxious state, to proceed to hand- cuff her. Is she so dangerous that she needed all this force in the circum- stances?" "A club full of security guards, why did none of them testify? The best ev- idence would be CCTV. Where is the CCTV footage to prove that my client abused the bouncers or the police?" In the absence of this evidence, the charges could not stand, the lawyer submitted. "We are only required to prove innocence up to the grade of probability. Did we? I submit that we have." The case continues in June.