€50 fine for tourists arrested on cathedral roof

Three foreign nationals, who were arrested this morning for climbing up a scaffold on to the roof of St. John’s Co-Cathedral “to watch the sunrise”, have been fined by a court.

Daniel Eberhard, 25, from Switzerland, Veronika Zakon and Werner Eberle, both 27, from Germany, had been arrested at around 4:30am this morning, after police responded to an alarm which had been triggered by the adventurous trio.

In a sitting before Magistrate Marseanne Farrugia this morning, Inspector Priscilla Caruana Lee charged the three, one of whom works in Malta, with unlawful entry into a restricted area.

Lawyer Noel Bartolo, appointed as legal aid to the defendants, described the episode of as a “foolish act,” for which the accused were sorry. 

All three pleaded guilty to the charge.

In view of their guilty plea and their cooperation with the police, Magistrate Farrugia fined them €50 each, noting that although “this was not the most serious of offences, the accused should have known that it was illegal.”

Two of the defendants were due to leave Malta immediately after the court sitting.

The court turned down the defence’s request to order a ban on the publication of the names of the accused.