An Qormi man was acquitted yesterday of attempting to seriously injure a police sergeant, after the police officer himself declared in court that it was not the case that the man had tried to run him over with his van.

Charles Yuri Agius, 34, was therefore cleared of this charge, but was found guilty of disobeying orders given by the same police sergeant and was fined Lm20.

The incident took place on 27 February 2005, when a marathon was underway and police sergeant Carmel Zammit was directing traffic in Triq il-Mithna, Qormi.

As Sergeant Zammit himself explained in court, at a certain point he had to stop vehicular traffic because an entire group of athletes was passing by. Agius, one of the motorists involved, started shouting, telling the policeman to let the cars pass and threatening that he would not stop.

In fact, he did not stop his van and the vehicle’s mirror hit the sergeant’s shoulder as Agius drove by.

The sergeant emphasised that Agius had not swerved, but had driven straight ahead and he noted that the accused had not tried to run him over, even though he might have said this to his superior, as Agius had hit him with the van’s mirror.

The sergeant’s testimony, said the court, showed that in no way did it appear that Agius had tried to run over the police sergeant and therefore he was cleared of attempting to seriously injure him. He was also cleared of breaching the peace and of using vulgar language.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli presided over the court. Police inspector Angelo Gafa’ prosecuted and Dr Franco Debono appeared for the accused.