Violent mugger sent to jail for 18 months

A Libyan refugee facing several pending accusations for violent theft, has been sentenced to 18 months in jail after grievously injuring a Maltese man in Paola last August.

Rawad Briga Abdelsalam, 31, who works in a quarry, admitted to mugging and robbing his victim, taking his cash and mobile phone and threatening to kill him.

The man was also charged with relapsing and breaching the peace and with being in possession of a weapon at the time of the commission of the crime.

The court, presided by magistrate Joseph Mifsud, took into consideration the early guilty plea of the accused and his cooperation with the police which led to the arraignment of his accomplice.

It observed that while the accused had injured the victim, his accomplice had stolen her possessions.

Last September, the accused was charged with attempted homicide when, during a mugging incident in August, he brutally slashed the throat of his female victim, grievously injuring her and causing her a permanent disfigurement. The aggressor had then made off with his victim's handbag containing a smartphone and some €20 in cash.

Police inspectors Joseph Mercieca and Hubert Cini prosecuted.