Armed gang of robbers stormed St Paul's bay house, court told

A man who was part of a gang of three armed men that stormed a house in St Paul’s Bay and demanded money from its occupant was remanded in custody after being charged in court on Wednesday.

Before magistrate Monica Vella, Inspector Godwin Scerri arraigned Salah Sharif from Tripoli and charged him with attempted armed robbery, causing slight injury to one of the occupants, aggravated theft of a mobile phone, carrying a knife during the commission of a crime and criminal damage.

Sharif was also charged with holding two men against their will, breaching the peace and threatening the men.

Inspector Scerri explained how the man, together with two accomplices who are still on the run, broke into a residence in St. Paul’s Bay at 7pm on 22 July, armed with a knife and a saw.

He then allegedly held two persons against their will, injuring one of the victims. The court heard how Sharif demanded money but ended up only taking a mobile phone. He was arrested at the scene, whilst the other two men escaped the police.

40-year-old Sharif, a plasterer by profession, told the court that he was pleading not guilty to the charges.

Legal aid lawyer Martin Fenech requested bail. “He’s denying his involvement. He’s been in Malta for twenty years taking care of his parents and is married with children. It means that if he was aggressive or violent, he would have slipped up over the past twenty years.”

In the past two decades, Sharif had retained an unblemished criminal record without so much as a conviction for a traffic offence, he said.

“He was there at the time to buy something and at the same time that the others attacked. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said the lawyer.

But the police inspector argued that the police had good evidence that he was the ringleader of the trio, adding however that there were a number of witnesses who lived near the accused who were yet to testify.

The investigation into the other two men are also still ongoing, said the inspector, implying that the accused could make contact with them if granted bail.

Magistrate Vella denied bail at this stage, citing the possibility of tampering with evidence.