Updated 12.28pm
A man who climbed naked on top of the Tritons Fountain on Sunday evening has been fined €1,000.
South-African born Kean Maske, suitably attired, appeared before a magistrate on Monday and after pleading guilty was also handed a three-month jail term suspended for two years.
The punishment is close to the maximum set by law.
The man works on board a yacht and climbed on the fountain as a dare. He arrived in Malta a few hours earlier and did not know the significance of the monument, his lawyer said.
“The act committed and admitted by the accused is in itself a serious matter, also because it tends to give a wrong impression about what goes on in this land where such acts, especially when committed on public monuments, cannot surely go unnoticed,” Magistrate Aaron Bugeja said.
Inspector Daryl Borg prosecuted.
Lawyer Robert Gauci Maistre was defence counsel.
It was the second unusual incident at the newly restored attraction after a bikini-clad woman sunbathed there last week.
Meanwhile, the Infrastructure Ministry said on Monday that the fountain will be switched off between May 16 and 25 for scheduled maintenance on the bronze and travertine.