Man 'unaware' it was illegal to use someone else's passport, court told

A Libyan man has claimed that he didn't know it was unlawful to use someone else's passport, as he was jailed for doing precisely that, this morning.

Inspector Darren Buhagiar arraigned Mansour Muftah, 28, from Tahourka before magistrate Francesco Depasquale earlier today, accusing him of trying to use a Maltese passport issued to another person at the airport on Sunday.

Muftah was arrested at check-in after it was noticed that the passport he presented was not his.

He was asked what he would be pleading. Speaking through an interpreter, he told the court that he had left his Libyan homeland because of the unrest there. 

The court clarified that the accusation was not about this, but his use of another person's passport. The court asked whether this was true.

Somebody had beaten him up in Malta, Muftah replied.

The court repeated the question. He said that he had, but “had not been aware that it was against the law.”

After dictating the transcript to the court clerk, magistrate Depasquale, choosing to err on the side of caution, asked the man for a fourth time whether he wanted to plead guilty. The reply came in the form of a question as to whether he would be going to prison directly if he did.

Lawyer Yana Micallef Stafrace, the Libyan's exasperated defence counsel, explained that the accused had told her before the sitting that he wasn't going to admit to the charges, but that now he wanted to plead guilty “although it was apparent that the accused did not appreciate the consequences.”

For good measure, the court invited the accused once more to confirm his plea. This time the accused started talking animatedly in a loud voice to the translator. Eventually he confirmed his admission. “Okay, yes.”

Muftah was sentenced to imprisonment for nine months.

After the sitting, the raised voices continued, with the Libyan loudly remonstrating with the police officer who was detailed with escorting him to prison. “Thank you, thank you,” the convicted man could be heard to say, sarcastically.