Six young people who celebrated the Nadur carnival dressed as nuns did not vilify the Catholic religion but their costume was in “very bad taste”.

In a judgement, Chief Justice Vincent de Gaetano threw out six appeals by the Attorney General who appealed a decision by a magistrate to acquit six people who dressed up as nuns in black material and a black and white veil.

The "nuns", Jonathan Saliba, 38, Daniel Seguna, 22, Elizabeth Grech, 27, Lucio Sciriha, 22, Wesley Zammit, 22, and Jennifer Busuttil, 24, were not wearing crosses and their costume did not constitute a sacred garment, Magistrate Edwina Grima said in the original judgment.

Chief Justice de Gaetano ruled that the “nuns” did not vilify the Roman Catholic religion. Nuns, he said, were not ministers of the Catholic religion because according to Canon law, ministers of the church were priests or deacons.

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