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A 23-year-old, Gozitan drugs trafficker who on Friday admitted to charges of conspiring to deal 1,954 ecstasy pills and cannabis has been mysteriously protected by the Magistrate’s Court by getting his name banned from publication.
The man from Qala, who is the partner of a prominent Labour journalist, was also accused in front of Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna with assaulting and injuring a police sergeant, damaging two police cars, and possessing a shotgun without a licence and relapsing.
Police inspector Pierre Grech, who led the prosecution against the Gozitan, informed the magistrate that the accused collaborated with investigators and had named other persons involved in the case. He is defended by lawyers Joseph Giglio and Jose Herrera, the latter a Labour MP.
This is not the first time the court is protecting drug traffickers’ names or imposing a ban on publication of well-connected people without stating the reasons behind its decision.
A similar ban was imposed last month when the police arraigned a man charged with fraud, who happens to be the cousin of a very high-ranking Cabinet minister.
In October, the magistrates’ court also issued a very mysterious ban on the publication of the name, position and job of a well-connected drugs importer and trafficker, fuelling much criticism on the media at the court’s unexplained decision.
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