A group of Belgian youths who stand charged in connection with the abduction and rape of a 17-year-old girl and the assault of her male companion in Malta have been granted bail.

They spent four months in preventive custody.

Masuekama Kabangu Dany, 20, Kamangu Lema Lelo Arnaud, 18, Muogo Mukengerwa N’Domba Amani, 20, and two other 17-year-old youths had been charged in July.

The victims, a French teenage girl and a 16-year-old male friend of hers, had filed a police report about the male friend having been attacked by the defendants at a nightclub, before the pair were kidnapped and taken to a Sliema flat. At the apartment the girl was allegedly raped by Dany, her ex-boyfriend. They also reported that the abducted male was then beaten up by the other men.

When the five men had been arraigned, one of the defendants, a 17-year-old, had admitted the charges against him - which exclusively dealt with bodily harm, while the others pleaded not guilty.

In a decree handed down this morning, Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo granted bail to Dany, Arnaud, Ndomba and the other 17-year-old defendant against a €15,000 deposit and a €50,000 personal guarantee, each.

The bail decree requires the defendants to surrender their passports, reside at the same address in Msida and observe a curfew.

Inspector Omar Zammit is prosecuting. Lawyers Franco Debono, Stefano Filletti, Jason Azzopardi, Gianluca Cappitta, Jose Herrera and Matthew Xuereb are defence counsel.