I am lost for words
The Malta Independent, today
Suspended sentence for catamaran bomb threat
28-year-old Aaron Sant, from Mqabba, was yesterday given a six-month jail term suspended for a year by magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna after admitting that it was he who made last Wednesday’s bomb threat which delayed the departure of a Virtu Ferries catamaran by about four hours.
The catamaran, Jean de la Valette, was due to leave Pozzallo, in Sicily, at around 7.30pm, when the police in Malta received a tip-off that a bomb was on board the same catamaran.
Prosecuting Police Inspector Anthony Portelli said that because of Mr Sant’s bomb hoax, all 163 passengers on board the catamaran had to be evacuated, and all 30 vehicles inside the catamaran’s basement had to be driven outside and searched.
All the passengers’ bags were also searched.
As a result of this, the catamaran arrived in Malta at about 1.15am.
Defence lawyer Franco Debono said that Mr Sant made the hoax because two of his brothers were scared that they wouldn’t make it to the catamaran on time when it was due to leave from Sicily, and the only way he could think of delaying its departure was by making a bomb hoax.
Although a bomb hoax is always serious, Dr Debono appealed for Mr Sant to be given a lenient sentence considering his clean police conduct and that his intention was only to help his brothers.
I can see how somebody might do that kind of thing in their crazy teens, when they don’t know what the implications are. But a man of 28?
“Oh, I’ll just ring up and tell them there’s a bomb aboard.”
Incredible.Not only is it wildly, criminally irresponsible, but also just so stupid – using a phone that allowed him to be traced immediately. And now Virty Ferries can and almost certainly will whack him with a massive suit for damages.
How can a man of 28 not be aware of these things? But what disturbs me most of all about this story is the lingering suspicion that it is just so typical of a certain swathe of Maltese society to put themselves first: inconveniencing an entire shipload of passengers and the ferry operator just so that two men don’t have to spend a night in Pozzallo.
One day, I might understand. Right now, I can’t.
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The problem is that court decisions are ridiculous! A suspended sentence? He probably walked out of court with the biggest of grins on his face!
Not when Virtu’ Ferries slap him with a lawsuit.
And then what will they get? Forced labour out of him? Well, he might be rich, who knows.
I have never really understood this business. If he can’t pay how will Virtu get the money? I can’t imagine a bank lending him money to pay a fine or whatever it’s called.
Why go through the trouble of suing him when it is highly probable that even if the outcome is favourable they’ll have nothing to show for it?
The grin might disappear if – and when – he is sued by Virtu Ferries for damages.
It is so easy to understand, Daphne. In distasteful and/or criminal behaviors the Maltese are catching up fast.
This is the result of selfishness, putting one’s interest before anything else and because of their mentality whose perimeter does not extend beyond the shores of the island.
What surprises me is that our courts will not grab an event such as the bomb hoax to set an example for copycats and imprison the twerp. Instead, he is handed down a suspended sentence!
It is almost an incentive for some other jerk without previous police record to do the same knowing full well that the first offence is almost always punished by a ‘suspended sentence’. It’s not like this has never happened before. Only recently a spat of anonymous bomb threats interrupted court proceedings and if I am not mistaken, the perpetrator(s) have yet to be caught.
Well put, Angus Black, every word of it. One might add that our limited gene pool does not help either. Imagine, inter-marrying in Mqabba, for example.
Please do not speak about subjects that you most probably have never delved in. The Maltese gene pool is infact very diverse and we are far from being homogenous.
Bio_Land, if you are an expert in the subject, the floor is yours. However, I do not see any good coming out of generations of inter-village marriages. Obviously, my opinion could be mistaken.
With such a lenient sentence the court is sending the message that if a bomb threat can solve some problem you have then go ahead and do it without having to worry about being caught.
That is of course unless Virtu Ferries and or other affected parties succesfully sue him for losses incurred.
Daphne, I agree with you 100%. This act was really stupid but I must say that the judgment against him was somewhat a bit too lenient. With the things that are happening worldwide at the moment, this guy must be out of his mind to come up with such an idea.
This week’s bombing of Domodedovo comes to mind and this selfish guy plays around with these matters without thinking of consequences (if there are any).
I hope Virtu Ferries sue his ass.
What about the bomb hoaxes at the law courts? Once I happened to be there and a total evacuation was done. We were left to stay in Strait Street between the family court and the main building until the search was done.
I told the policeman in charge that if a bomb explodes in an office facing Strait Street, the fifty people who were gathered outside would certainly be maimed. His reaction was a dumb look and “mind your own business, we know that it probably is one of the usual hoaxes!”
I think the police may be quoting inaccurate information here.
I was present at the time, and no passengers’ bags were searched or cars driven off the boat and searched.
I thought the ferry crew handled the situation with finesse and real care and attention, but the actions of the police left a lot to be desired.
I too was speechless when reading the sentence handed down. Please do not try to understand, Daphne – it is just incredible. If this happened in the UK or USA the bloke would just have been slammed in jail.
This is a serious matter, and it clearly shows that the Maltese parliament needs to wake up to the realities and if our medieval laws need to be changed to take into account bomb threats, etc. then so be it.
The Maltese parliament only wakes up to new ideas of how to furhter tax business and enterprise. It does not pay to come up with new ideas of how to put more people in prison.
Maybe this is becoming unaffordable in this country. In fact, there is another idea brewing: it is that of ‘parole’. In other words, an idea to creat more income to the people in the criminal-legal field and to put more criminals in the streets and off our prison.
Indeed, our prison is overcrowded and too costly. Hence, I think, the spate of suspended sentences and other non-imprisonment sentences.
Don’t marvel, Daphne, This is Malta – a society built on the pattern of ‘a closed archaic family’. The father (party in goverment), mum ( the opposition) and finally grandma (the Catholic Church).
The formula is simple: what I don’t get from papi, I boo ho mama, and if that does not work, I boo hoo nanna.
Perfect. So, if this guy commits a crime within a year, he goes to jail for six months.
If, within a year, one of his mates is late for the catamaran he will have to ask one of his brothers to phone police headquarters.
In this way he will avoid going to jail.
Problem solved.
I would not be at all surprised if Virtu Ferries will, from now on, have to put up with such nuisance on a regular basis.
The Company was badly let down by the Law.
It is now up to the Company to pursue an effective deterrent.
We the citizens have been badly let down by the law.
Our lives are controlled by the likes of these magistrates. Unbelievable!
Clearly we do not have anti-terror laws. If this were elsewhere, it’d be a different story altogether in terms of prosecution.
Will the Attorney-General appeal?
But what disturbs me most of all about this story is the lingering suspicion that it is just so typical of a certain swathe of Maltese society to put themselves first
Witness the dog turds left by pet owners in the best strolling areas. One evening my dog decided to poop on the grass in front of the local school. In the dark I had a hard time picking up the right poop.
It’s a disgrace that people can be so egotistical. It’s even worst considering that the local councils have installed garbage bins in most of the right places. It’s not like the perpetrator has to carry the stinker for too long either.
And what about the garbage thrown in the countryside. From car-parts to dead animals including piglets, rabbits, goats, sheep even a cow’s head. A cooker left in the middle of the road and more. In my case the local council offers free collection of bulky refuse. There’s no sense of civic duty whatsoever…
This was an interesting show put on by Bundy the other day that appeared fairly obviously devoted to this blog:
http://public.di-ve.com/streaming/on_demand_media_streamer.aspx?id=4580&encoding=8&backUrl=streaming/on_demand_event_encoding.aspx%3fid%3d4580
Nothing to do with the above, but I hope that here is the best way to send the message to Bank of Valletta. I needed to cash a cheque the other day, and had no idea that you can only do that till midday. Anyway, if that`s the policy, then so be it.
There were no customers when I went in, so ‘good’ I thought, until I got to the counter. The teller was not in her seat, she was standing, her back to me, doing whatever she had to. I expected, at least, that she would turn to face me and and acknowledge my presence. Instead, she half turned, SAW the cheque in my hands ( so she understood what I had gone there for), asked in a most rude tone ” X`ghandek bzonn?”, and when I replied, she scolded me with “Ma nsarrfux cekkijiet wara nofs in-nhar”, all this while standing and barely looking at me, THE CUSTOMER.
But what baffled me was that when I went to the next branch, just 10 minutes away, to make sure that it was not just that ill-mannered idiot who was refusing to cash the cheque (it was a Friday, so the banks are open till after 4pm), and this cashier greeted me with a smile and cashed the cheque as if it was the most normal thing to do. Go figure!
You do not have to figure anything. You were simply royally treated by an individual who never had any manners to start with, and the bank that employed her forgot to instill any. I still remember when I joined a bank way back in 1960s (not BOV), which chose to ‘waste time’ for a whole week by trying to instill in us raw recruits one simple concept: the customer is always right. This bank also hammered into us the fact that the customer also pays our salary. Customer-care people, please note.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110128/local/magistrate-raps-acting-prisons-director
From above news item :
“Supt. Zammit said that Mr Bone was being held at the Mount Carmel Forensic Unit and he had been taken to court from there. However, a car had broken down on the way resulting in traffic on the road.
At this point the magistrate said: “I don’t believe you”.
Supt. Zammit pointed out that he was testifying under oath.
And Magistrate Meli quipped that he was also under oath and he did not believe Supt. Zammit.”
So will Supt. Zammit be arraigned for perjury?
[Daphne – I think somebody should arraign the magistrate, quite frankly. His behaviour is repeatedly abominable, and none of those lawyers have the balls to get together and do something about it. They all let him treat them like sitting ducks, and nobody stands up to him. Superintendent Zammit should write immediately to the Commission for the Administration of Justice.]
There are two quite important points the “journalist” missed out.
1. Was this a one-off occurrence, or habitual?
2. How late was he?
I’m not sure why this even reached the press, it seems that unless this was a re-occurring annoyance this magistrate had to face – something which I doubt – this could have stopped in the courtroom.