Drugs case referred back to Magistrates' Court

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, presiding over the Court of Criminal Appeal, yesterday annulled a judgment in terms of which Valletta woman Josette Bickle was jailed for two years on drug related charges.

The police had charged Ms Bickle with having, in the summer of 2003 trafficked in cocaine and she was jailed for two years and fined her Lm1,500.

But the Court of Criminal Appeal upheld Ms Bickle's appeal and annulled the first court's judgment, saying that any judgment had to state the facts of the case and also list the sections of the law that had proven to have been violated. This had not occurred in this case.

The court thus ordered that the records of the case be returned to the Magistrates' Court where Ms Bickle was to be placed in the same situation as she had been prior to the first judgment being delivered. The Magistrates' Court was to decide on the case once again.