Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/915099
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post PAGE 9 • Editorial WEDNESDAY • 13 DECEMBER 2017 • ISSUE 567 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY FORMER DRUG ADDICT/TR AFFICKER IMPRISONED Fears that street art may be obscured by commercial advertising 7 5 Six year sentence for former lover of Mintoff Bland who stabbed her KURT SANSONE JUSTICE Minister Owen Bonnici has said he is "open to a constructive de- bate" following the sentencing to three years' imprisonment of William Agius, who pleaded guilty to ecstasy traffick- ing in a case dating back to 2004. Agius, who was 18 at the time, was arrested 14 years ago, along with his drug supplier Geordie Felice, close to San Bastjan parish church in Qormi, in what was at the time the biggest-ever ecstasy drug haul. He was on Monday accused before judge Antonio Mizzi, of aggravated pos- session, association and drug traffick- ing, and admitted to all three charges. Agius faced a minimum punishment of four years' imprisonment and a maxi- mum of 20 years. However, the judge chose to give a lesser jail term, in line with what the magistrate's court could give, which was possible due to an amendment to the law. Mizzi handed Agius a three-year prison term and fined him €3,000. Agius, who has since been rehabili- tated and has been off drugs for several years, was recently in the news amid arguments that sending him to prison would only serve to destroy the pro- gress he had made in his life. Bonnici told MaltaToday that a bal- ance has to be found between the de- terrent at law for serious cases of drug trafficking and giving ex-drug addicts a second chance. TO JAIL OR NOT TO JAIL PAGE 3 Justice minister open to a constructive debate