Court puts emphasis on mercy as Labour Party club thieves given probation

A Gozo court has emphasised the importance of mercy as it handed two thieves a suspended sentence

Two men were charged with having committed aggravated theft from the Labour Party club in Sannat, Gozo
Two men were charged with having committed aggravated theft from the Labour Party club in Sannat, Gozo

A Gozo court has emphasised the importance of mercy as an aspect of justice in its judgment against two men who robbed Sannat's Labour Party Club in 2015.

Silvio Pace, 46, from Hamrun, was charged together with 41-year-old Libyan Bashir Abu Gawem Al-Hariri­, from Santa Venera, with having committed aggravated theft from the Labour Party club in Sannat, Gozo and subsequently handling the goods stolen, in March 2015. The pair were also charged with damaging private property.

Pace and Al-Hariri also faced a separate charge of receiving items stolen from a store room in a field in Kercem and were additionally accused of relapsing.

Pace alone was further charged with breaching bail conditions and a probation order that had been imposed for a previous offence.

The men pleaded guilty to the charges.

In a sentence emphasising the judiciary's role as rehabilitators of offenders, magistrate Joe Mifsud, presiding the Court of Magistrates in Gozo noted the accused had since mended their ways and quoted from homilies delivered in recent months by Pope Francis and Archbishop Charles Scicluna, urging humility and mercy.

In the circumstances, a custodial sentence was not ideal, magistrate Mifsud observed, as he placed the men on probation for three years each. “The court is of the opinion that [probation should be imposed] with the aim that the accused continue down the right path and recognise that they are not to repeat their past mistakes.”

Lawyers Angie Muscat, Franco Debono and Joseph Grech were defence counsel.