A family of three was yesterday charged with various offences related to an altercation with police, with defence lawyer Toni Abela vehemently arguing against the fact that the police charged the family under arrest and kept them in cells all night.

Shawn Agius, 35, Nadia Bugeja, 36, and Sean Henry Bugeja, 18, from Marsascala, were all charged with threatening and insulting various police officers on 25 September in Sliema at 1.30pm.

They were also accused of assaulting police and disobeying police orders, breaching the peace, and slightly injuring a number of officers. Dr Abela seriously questioned why the police had kept the family in cells overnight. “You have every right to detain people. But to detain a whole family overnight in connection with an incident in which they were injured and was caused by police adamantly blocking traffic during school rush hour because they wanted to tow a car away is wrong,” he said.

Dr Abela said that the car was going nowhere and that the police could have prevented tempers from boiling over by allowing the traffic to pass at such a busy time. “The police should exercise their right to arrest people but they should do it responsibly,” he said. On his part, inspector Stephen Gatt said that an assault on uniformed policemen was a serious offence.

The court, presided over by magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna set bail against a personal guarantee of Lm500 per accused. Police inspector Stephen Gatt prosecuted.