No bail for man found carrying drugs in cigarette packet in Paceville

A 25-year old plasterer has been remanded in custody on charges of having trafficked cocaine and marijuana in Paceville over the weekend.

Inspector Gabriel Micallef arraigned Emad Abdelhamid of Sliema before Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera this morning, accusing him of possession of cannabis and cocaine “in circumstances that denoted they were not solely intended for his consumption”.

Asked about the amounts of drugs found on the man's person, the Inspector said Abdelhamid was found to be carrying “six pieces of cannabis resin, six packets of cannabis grass and one packet of cocaine” in a cigarette packet, at the time of his arrest in St. George's Road, Paceville in the early hours of Sunday morning. 

The man was also accused of relapsing.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera noted that the accused had been jailed for 15 months in March and expressed surprise at his release. The court was told that Abdelhamid had been released in June – just four months after his incarceration - because time spent in preventive custody, amongst other factors, had been deducted from the sentence.

The prosecution argued that the man should not be released from custody as they feared he would abscond.

However, Abdelhamid’s lawyer Jason Grima, who entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf and requested bail, pointed out that the man was in Malta is under subsidiary humanitarian protection.

“This means that the inspector's fear of him absconding is fictitious and only meant as a stumbling block. He has a job and if he is remanded he will lose his job and all that he has built to this day,” the lawyer submitted, arguing that the man was just a drug user with a strong habit and that his client’s crime was merely one of simple possession.

The court was told that the man lived in a rented apartment, together with six other Libyan nationals, but that the apartment's address was not the same as the one he had submitted to the refugee commission.

The court remanded the man in custody and ordered the landlord to be summoned for the next sitting in order to testify that Abdelhamid is living there legitimately.