Language student fined €4,065 for drunken attack on police

An English language student has been fined €4,000 and handed a suspended prison sentence for a drunken attack on police in St Julian’s early this morning

The accused was handed a six month sentence, suspended for two years and a fine of €4,000 for the violence
The accused was handed a six month sentence, suspended for two years and a fine of €4,000 for the violence

An English language student has been fined €4,000 and handed a suspended prison sentence for a drunken attack on police in St Julian’s early this morning.

Police Inspector Nikolai Sant told magistrate Doreen Clarke how Kemal Burak Ozevci, 22, from Turkey, had been arrested at 1am this morning in St George Street, Paceville, for violently resisting police officers who had noticed him carrying and consuming alcohol in a prohibited area.

Bye-laws introduced by the local council in 2008 expressly prohibit the carrying of glass or unsealed alcohol containers in the Paceville area and impose a fine on transgressors.

Ozevci was charged with violently resisting public officers acting on lawful authority, insulting or threatening them, being drunk in a public area and breaching the St Julian’s bye-laws on alcoholic containers.

Lawyer Joe Ellis, who was appointed as legal aid to the accused, did not contest validity of the arrest. Ozevci pleaded guilty to the charges.

In his submissions on punishment, Ellis observed that the youth had only limited financial means, being an English language student. He asked the court consider going below the minimum €4,000 penalty for violent resistance in the circumstances. The lawyer said the accused was truly sorry for what happened, “although he didn’t remember much about the incident as he was drunk.”

Inspector Sant suggested that the court might prefer to give him a timeframe in which to pay the fine, pointing out that the youth could be arrested under a European or International arrest warrant if he failed to pay the fine.

In view of his admission, Ozevci was handed a six month sentence, suspended for two years and a fine of €4,000 for the violence. He was also fined €65 for the breach of the local bye-laws. The court allowed Ozevci one year in which to pay the total €4,065 fine, warning him that failure to do so would result in his being arrested and brought back to Malta to serve the six-month prison sentence.