A woman has been denied bail on charges of threatening the police and disobeying their lawful orders after trying to escape from custody.
30-year-old Raquel Lopez Romero from Spain sobbed in the dock during her arraignment before magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace this morning. Sources say the woman had been in Wilga Street Paceville in the company of a Somali man when he had allegedly sexually assaulted another female. She is believed to have vociferously objected to police questions this morning and tried to escape from the police car, before creating a disturbance at the St. Julian’s police station.
Lopez Romero pleaded not guilty to the charges and requested bail.
Her legal aid lawyer, Martin Fenech played down the incident, saying that she might have said some unnecessary things to the police but that this did not merit her being denied bail.
But the woman, who has only been in Malta since Monday could not remember her address for the purposes of bail, other than that she lived in an apartment in Sliema. The court said it had no option but to remand her in custody.
Her Somali companion will be arraigned in the coming days.
Inspector Joseph Xerri prosecuted.