Men involved in smuggling cannabis on catamaran granted bail

Two men who had been held in preventive custody since being caught with 4kg of cannabis on the ferry from Sicily in September, have been granted bail after spending almost two months in preventive custody.

41-year-old Rita Scicluna, of Luqa, and 27-year-old Osaro Osarenkhoe, from Nigeria, arrived on the ferry on 15 September, while Scicluna's 28-year-old Sicilian-resident husband Nicholas Obaseki, also from Nigeria, had been waiting for them outside the ferry terminal in Malta.

The trio, who had been the subject of a police investigation for some time, had been arrested by waiting police officers who had been tipped off by an off-duty colleague in Sicily. The court was told how sniffer dogs discovered two packets of the drug during a search of the vehicle that Scicluna had been driving, with Osaro Osarenkhoe in the passenger seat. 

All three denied trafficking charges.

But while Scicluna had been granted bail during the arraignment due to the fact that she had a young child to care for, the men had both been remanded in custody, with the court also refusing subsequent requests for their release.

In a decree handed down on 2 November, magistrate Neville Camilleri upheld the request for bail, ordering their temporary release from arrest against a deposit of €5,000 and a personal guarantee of €25,000. The men were obliged to sign a bail book daily and observe a curfew. Their passports and ID cards were also deposited in court.

Lawyer Albert Zerafa is defending Scicluna and Obaseki. Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Muscat are appearing for Osarenkhoe.