Hijacker who forced plane to come to Malta granted bail

One of the two men involved in the hijack of an Afriqiyah Airlines Airbus 320 to Malta just before Christmas 2016 has been granted bail. The plane was on an internal flight when it was hijacked and forced to land in Malta by pro-Gaddafi loyalists. The hijackers surrendered here and no one was injured.  Soko Moussa Shaha Ali, and Ali Ahmed Saleh, both in their 20s, were arrested after releasing the 109 passengers and seven crew members on board. They had threatened to blow up the plane but their weapons later turned out to be fake.  READ: Plane hijack drama in Malta ends; all hostages released  The two were arraigned on Christmas Day 2016 amid tight security and have been awaiting trial since, while facing the prospect of life imprisonment if found guilty. READ: Libyan hijackers plead not guilty - taken to court under heavy escort By means of an application filed last week, Mr Soko Moussa’s lawyer argued that his client was entitled to release from preventive arrest in terms of law, provided that he could adequately guarantee the observance of bail conditions. Moreover, the court was bound to grant bail once the maximum term of preventive arrest envisaged by law had run its...