Antonio Briffa, a 38-year-old man from Luqa, this morning was sentenced to six months imprisonment and fined €4,000 for attacking a number of police officers in court, as well as a lawyer and his wife. A protection order was also issued in favour of the assaulted parties.

The accused was at the law courts appearing in a separate hearing when he attacked police inspectors Hubert Cini, Branton Gillford and Clint Bohn. The incident occurred on 21 February this year.

The court heard how the accused caused slight injuries to the police officers.

The accused was charged with threatening officers, causing slight injury, assaulting other individuals, breaching public order, breaching the conditions of no less than two separate conditional discharges, breaching conditions of bail and breaching conditions of a suspended sentence.

The courts found him guilty of assaulting both the officers and the individuals, disobeying an instruction from the authorities and breaching public order.

He was found not guilty of breaching the conditions of his conditional discharges, and the court abstained from deciding on the charges of threatening an officer and causing slight injury at the request of the prosecution.

With regards the charge levelled against the accused relating to breaching conditions for bail in a separate case, the court ordered that bail is revoked and that he is again remanded in custody.

It is understood that the revocation of bail and placing him back under arrest could have been carried out because if the accused appeals the six month jail sentence and the €4,000 fine, he would be allowed to walk free pending the outcome of the appeal. It felt that in the circumstances, it should not confiscate the man's €15,000 personal guarantee.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud, presiding over the case, said that the police and other court officials should be given the right protection while in court. “It is in the society’s interest to allow police officers to do their job properly and in safety. Even more, when such incident occurs in the corridors of the courts, where justice is expected to be handed.”

The prosecution was led by inspectors Daryl Borg while Dr Alfred Abela appeared for the accused. 

Magistrate Mifsud made it clear the court must provide a serene environment for law enforcement officers to carry out their work properly. He noted that the incident taking place inside the court house made it that much more serious.