Man At Marsa Funeral ‘Did Not Shout Allahu Akbar, Seemed Catholic’
An Ivorian man hit the news this week when he was charged in court with breaching the peace after reportedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while drunk outside a funeral rite at the Marsa parish church.
However, a relative of the deceased told Lovin Malta what really happened on Thursday was a far cry from what had been reportedly by large sections of the Maltese press.
“We were leaving the church with the coffin, heard some cries and the word ‘Allah’, and saw this man – clearly drunk – sitting on the road by the pavement,” Thomas Agius said. “When he saw the coffin, he took off his satchel, told us ‘Let me help you’ and in fact helped us load the coffin into the hearse. At no point did he say ‘Allahu akbar’ but in fact told us ‘Send him to heaven, Jesus is the one true God. He was probably a Catholic.”
Modibo Cisse was handed a two-year conditional discharge
Agius said the Ivorian man, who lives in Rome and was later named in court as Modibo Cisse, was standing in the street and almost got run over by a passing car. He said the driver swore at Cisse in Maltese (f’ghoxx kemm ghandek), a swear word he seemed to understand as he tried to chase the car through the street while swearing back, before the police eventually arrested him.
“There are foreigners all over Malta, many of them don’t obey Maltese law, and I have no faith in our courts to hand out fair sentences to them,” Agius said. “However, the way this has been reported is completely unfair on this man. Some media even reported he had entered the church when he hadn’t even stepped foot on the pavement.”
In court on Thursday, Cisse pleaded guilty to charges of breaching the peace and being drunk in a public place. He was handed a two-year conditional discharge and agreed to return home to Italy.
Contacted by Lovin Malta, the man’s legal aid Victor Bugeja refused to speculate where the claims his client had said ‘Allahu akbar’ had originated from.
“What was said in court has already been said, and now it’s up to the journalists who reported it to explain,” he said. “Many media reports were inaccurate – it’s not true he entered the church, or that he damaged a car, or threatened to attack someone. In fact, the police let him go shortly after arresting him because they saw no reason why he should be detained.
“This has become a storm in a teacup and I just want to let it go now. The case is closed and my client is back in Italy.”
This morning, a Facebook post explaining the whole situation went viral, with General Workers’ Union section secretary Jeremy Camilleri explaining how “various journalists have conveniently not reported” the eye witnesses’ reports and that the ‘Patriots’ “were milking the unfortunate incident.”
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