Suspended sentence for woman who used false travel documents

A court handed a suspended sentence to a Nigerian woman who came to Malta from Italy using false travel documents.

Inspector Frankie Sammut told Magistrate Charmaine Galea that the woman, 29-year-old Salametu Idris resides in an open centre in Trapani, Sicily and had used a forged passport, identity card and residency permit to pay a visit to her friends in Malta.

Idris pleaded guilty, claiming that she had only wanted to visit her friends, who lived in Malta. The court heard how she had succeeded in this aim, only being arrested while attempting to make her way back to Italy.

Lawyer Patrick Valentino, as legal aid, asked the court to take into consideration the woman’s cooperation with the police and early guilty plea.


The court imposed a ten-month prison sentence, suspended to two years. Inspector Sammut informed the court arrangements had already been made for Idris’s repatriation to Italy.