Immigration employee case in court
Immigration service employee J.M. (36) appeared in the Court of First Instance on January 25, for the preliminary hearing in the investigation against her. She was arrested on November 14, 2016 and is suspected of passive bribery, forgery and human smuggling during the period of April 23 to November 14, 2016.
The suspect was not present during the proceedings. The defense lawyer asked for her detention to be suspended or lifted. The judge did not grant this request and decided that she would remain for the time being in pre-trial detention. The court case will continue at a later date this year.
Joyrider given community service
The suspect M.A. (26) was sentenced on January 25, by the Court of First Instance to 80 hours of community service for joyriding.
He was arrested on November 19, 2016 in the middle of the night near the zoo. He displayed suspicious behavior, and in the vicinity an amount of cocaine was found by the police. Yet while M.A. was shackled, he managed to drive away with the police car only to be apprehended later on.
The Prosecutor asked for acquittal of the charge of drug possession as it could not be established without reasonable doubt that the drugs belonged to the suspect. The Prosecutor did ask for 2 months in jail for car theft and/or joy riding.
The Judge of the Court of First Instance believed that joyriding was legally and convincingly proven and sentenced M.A. to 80 hours of community service.
