Lieutenant Donald Debono told the court that his vessel, the P51, was on routine patrol when the AFM informed them that a locally registered vessel had reported that a foreign vessel and crew was fishing in Maltese territorial waters.

Lt. Debono was testifying against captain Wagih Mohammed El Ghaly, 37, his brother Oussama Mohammed El Ghaly, 26, their two cousins Emad El Din Khalil Hegazy, 29, Ibrahim Khalil Abou Hegazy, 28 and Abou Helmy El Bousaty, 30.

The five men are accused of fishing in Malta’s 25-mile conservation zone without a licence. The captain was also charged with failing to notify a fisheries protection officer of the amounts and descriptions of fish found on the vessel, as well as having not stowed away fishing gear while the boat was sailing in Maltese waters.

Lt. Debono said that the trawler was first spotted some 22 miles south of Delimara Point. It was intercepted at about 11.15pm on Monday and escorted back to Laboratory Wharf in Paola, where it arrived at about 5am on Tuesday.

Lt. Debono said his crew saw a blip on the radar and the P51’s power-dinghy was launched. He said that flares were fired and the dinghy crew conveyed the message that the ship was to be escorted back to Malta.

The patrol boat crew also secured video footage of the fishing crew hauling their nets and equipment back on board their ship as the patrol boat arrived.

Meanwhile, police inspector Ramon Mercieca told the court that he was told that a fishing trawler was being escorted back to harbour and he went down to Laboratory Wharf to question the crew.

He said that on arrival, he inspected the ship and found about 28 boxes packed with different varieties of fish and octopus. Insp. Mercieca said that the crew said they were outside Maltese waters. However, he said data recovered from both the P51 and the Alexander K,showed that the boat was actually fishing inside Malta’s 25-mile conservation zone. He said the crew consisted of the captain, three deck-hands and one engineer/deck-hand. All were Egyptian nationals, he said.

Meanwhile, Fisheries Director Anthony Gruppetta said that the vessel in question had about 20 boxes of different fish in its holds. He added that although the vessel was a very frequent visitor to Malta, to the extent that she used Malta as a base of operations, the crew did not hold the necessary licence to be able to fish in Maltese territorial waters.

The court, presided over by magistrate Dennis Montebello, set bail for the captain against a personal guarantee of Lm15,000 and a Lm1,000 deposit. The three deck-hands were granted bail against a personal guarantee of Lm1,000. The engineer was granted bail against a personal guarantee of Lm10,000 at a previous hearing.

The case continues. Police inspector Ramon Mercieca is prosecuting while Dr Leslie Cuschieri appeared for the defence.