Two injured in Paceville bar fight glassing, man remanded in custody

A fight with glass bottles on Saturday morning has left two men severely injured and both its participants facing criminal proceedings.

One of the two men involved in the fight, which occurred in Paceville during the early hours of Saturday morning, was today denied bail just hours after he was discharged from hospital.

Refuse collector Mohammed Hasan Abdullahi, 23,  from Somalia had been residing at the Hal Far Open Centre since his release from prison some three weeks ago.

A dishevelled looking Abdullahi shuffled into court today with his left arm bandaged and supported by a sling.

Prosecuting Police Inspector Matthew Spagnol explained how at around 3:15am on Saturday morning, police had been informed about a fight going on in Ross Street, Paceville.

Officers found two bloodied men: Abdullahi and another foreign national, being treated by an ambulance team that had arrived before the police.

Witnesses told police how the two men had allegedly been standing at a bus stop when an argument broke out between them.

The situation degenerated into fisticuffs and at one point glass bottles were smashed and used as weapons, the witnesses had told police.

The prosecution explained how both men had been taken to hospital, suffering serious injuries.

The accused was discharged only yesterday evening after having undergone surgery. The other party in the fight was not released from hospital, which is why he was not charged today.

Abdullahi entered a plea of not guilty to charges of grievous bodily harm.

Lawyer Leontine Calleja, assisting the accused as legal aid, asked for bail.

Inspector Spagnol objected to the request, stressing the serious nature of the incident, saying that the accused had  intentionally smashed a glass bottle in order to attack the other man with it. The situation was made worse by the fact that the accused knew where his victim resided, he said.

Furthermore, the man’s address was unclear, as he had initially told police that he shared a residence in Msida which later turned out to be untrue. The accused’s defence lawyer pointed out that if the system recording residents at Hal Far was not updated, it was no fault of her client who had a regular job and was still presumed innocent.

“He is a victim as much as an aggressor. Suffice it to look at the state he is in,” Calleja argued

The man’s heavily tarnished criminal record and the fact that he was living in Malta illegally having failed to renew his residence permit did not help his case, however - Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras turned down the request for bail.