Egyptian man, arrested at airport with €20,000 in cash, denied bail

An Egyptian fisherman, arrested at the airport yesterday for not declaring the €20,000 he had been flying home with, has been remanded in custody this afternoon.

Khamis Mohamed Elghaly Fahmy, 40, from Damietta, Egypt was arrested at the MIA departure lounge airport after checking in his baggage and passing through security, while waiting to board a flight to Cairo via istanbul.

Prosecuting Inspector William Scicluna told magistrate Monica Vella how while waiting in the departure lounge, two customs department officials had approached the Egyptian and asked him if he was planning on taking any money to Egypt. Despite Fahmy’s denial, he was called into an office, where his suitcase was opened to reveal €20,000 in cash. The Cash Control Regulations stipulate that amounts of cash exceeding €10,000 must be declared to customs before being taken abroad.

He explained that €8000 of the €20,000 were his and that he was carrying the rest for other people.

It was suggested that the accused had been delivering the majority of the money to the families of his fellow fishermen, allegedly a common practise amongst his fellow fishermen.He claimed not to have known about the declaration requirement.

Answering questions from defence lawyer James D’Agostino, the inspector confirmed that while the walls of the the departure lounge displayed signs clearly stating this requirement, in Maltese and English, the accused had difficulty reading Western script.

The accused had fully cooperated with the police from the moment of his arrest after the “random cash control check” at the non-Schengen departures area, inspector Scicluna said. The €20,000 had all been in a pouch around the man’s waist, he added.

“When officers had asked him how much money he was carrying with him he said €8600,” said the officer. Prodded by the defence, the inspector said that the accused had given the same explanation for the larger total to him.

The accused pleaded not guilty and requested bail - a request objected to by the prosecution.

D’Agostino argued that the accused could not run anywhere as his passport was in police custody.No witnesses lived in Malta and he could not travel home with an ID card, added the lawyer. The Egyptian’s employer, Ernest Galea, told the court that the accused was part of a six man crew manning his trawler and that he was willing to act as a guarantor for the accused.

The court, however, after noting that the accused lacked a fixed address in Malta, held that he had insufficient ties to Malta for its reassurance and denied bail, magistrate Vella saying that he could easily find other means of travelling abroad, even without his passport.