Drunk man who bit police officers is jailed for two years

A man who attacked and bit police officers who had found him unconscious and tried to help him has been jailed, with the court
saying that he should not benefit from any clemency.

Inspector Robert Vella had told magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech how Faraj Mohamed Faraj El Ragig, 33, from Libya, residing at Marsa had been discovered by police whilst passed-out drunk.

He woke up whilst they were calling for assistance and the two officers who had tried tomake sure that he was all right found themselves on the receiving end of abuse and aggression, with the accused biting them both.

A police constable had testified to how, on 17 December last year he and a colleague had noted the accused flat on his back, with cotton
wool in his ears and evident facial injuries. They had tried to speak to him but he didn’t want to talk.

Whilst they were radioing for an ambulance he got up “like in a rage…he got up, shot up…and came running at me shouting ‘Allah u akbar’.” The irascible drunk had tried to punch and bite the officers, the court was told, and the officers had to use a taser to control the man.

In the course of being restrained, he had bitten the two officers.

El Ragig was charged with attacking the police officers, insulting or threatening them during the exercise of their duties, slightly
injuring them, breaching the peace, failing to obey legitimate orders and being drunk and incapable of taking care of himself in a public place.

In his statement to the police, El Ragig denied being drunk or attacking the officers. “At that time I was normal, they attacked me. I didn’t do anything to them. I didn’t ask for any help from the police,” he told the court.

The court said it didn’t believe this version of events. “The police stopped to help him because of the position they saw him in, leaning
against a crash barrier with evident injuries to his face. They had no reason so stop other than to help. This is the thanks they get!”

The court observed that the police officers’ versions of events were balanced and unembellished, so much so that they had even said that he had calmed down on the way to the police station.

Jailing the accused for two years, Magistrate Frendo Dimech noted that the defence had asked for clemency, but said that on the other hand, the accused had shown no remorse for his actions.

“His reprehensible actions, committed on persons – police officials – who are the shield of the citizenry, can never merit some form of excuse, much less clemency. If this conduct is allowed to take root and flourish, at the end of the day it is the country that will be the greatest loser…Attacks on the forces of law and order should not be tolerated, rather they should be punished with the greatest severity.”