Attorney General appeals fireworks sentences

The Attorney General has appealed from sentences delivered in two separate cases of illegal manufacture and storing of fireworks, with fines not exceeding a total of €700 (Lm300).

Two men had pleaded guilty to illegally manufacturing and holding fireworks after they were arrested in the spate of searches mounted after the Naxxar explosion.

The police phone lines were flooded with reports of illegal fireworks manufacture following the Naxxar blast on March 12 which killed two people - a man who was in a garage where the blast occurred and a woman living next door - when a significant amount of fireworks stored illegally in a garage blew up in the middle of a residential area. As a result of the police searches six men have already been arraigned.

Two of those arraigned pleaded guilty on March 24.

Joseph Spiteri, 48, of Xagħra, was fined €208 (Lm89.69) after admitting to the possession of explosive material without a licence and to illegally manufacturing and storing fireworks in his truck, which was confiscated.

In a separate case, on the same day, 42-year-old Anthony Caruana of Mellieħa was fined €465 (Lm199.57) for similar charges.

Mr Caruana was given the maximum fine allowed by the law - which lays down that anyone found guilty of illegally manufacturing fireworks or handling explosives is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine ranging between €46.59 (Lm20) and €465.87 (Lm200).

Newly-appointed Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici reacted to the sentences, telling The Times he had asked for a review of the penalties associated with illegal fireworks practices. The Attorney General, in fact, is already working on amendments that should make penalties in such cases much tougher.

The appeal is being made both on technical grounds and on the grounds that the sentences were felt to be too lenient.