Magistrate Joe Mifsud today showed no mercy to a Bible-brandishing Ghanaian man who pleaded for clemency on charges of causing a scene in Valletta and creating a public disturbance.

In February, he had got off with a suspended sentence but, this time round, the magistrate sent him to jail for six months and fined him €850.

Yaw Akaadom, 35, a Ghanaian man with an Italian residence permit, took out a Bible from his pocket, fell to his knees and pleaded for clemency just before the court delivered its judgement.

Mr Akadoom was arrested after causing a scene in Valletta on17 March and refused to obey police orders while drunk. 

He was also accused of being drunk in public and leading an idle and vagrant life. Magistrate Mifsud noted that Mr Akaadom was a relapser who just over a month ago had been involved in a similar tussle with the forces of law and order in St Joseph High Street, Ħamrun.

While acquitting the man of the charge of violent resistance to arrest, the court declared him guilty of all the other charges and brought into effect the former six-month suspended jail term. The man was also fined €850.