A former employee of a man accused of attempting to smuggle illegal immigrants out of the island yesterday corroborated his boss’s version of events, that he had employed two immigrants just days before he was arrested.

George Vella took the witness stand in the trial by jury of Phillip Azzopardi, 67, of Birkirkara and company director Joseph Vella, 54, of Victoria. The men are pleading not guilty to harbour­ing criminals and providing the means of escape for illegal immigrants.

Mr Vella was produced by defence lawyers Emmanuel Mallia and Arthur Azzopardi to strengthen their clients’ case.

Mr Azzopardi told jurors just days before his arrest, on the advice of Mr Vella, he had hired some immigrants to help with fixing a wire net, used for bumping cars, which needed main­tenance. He said Mr Vella had asked him to employ these people because he could not fix the large net by himself. They used a Buġibba garage in which to repair the net and the police later accused Mr Azzopardi of hiding the immigrants there.

The case centres around the escape of 54 immigrants from temporary detention at the Floriana police headquarters. Police Inspector Jeffery Cilia testified on Monday that on August 8, 2003, the police had caught 14 illegal immigrants at Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq. Six of them were among a large group that had escaped from police headquarters three weeks earlier.

During questioning, the arrested immigrants told the police they had been hiding at the Xemxija Bay Hotel, owned by Mr Azzopardi.

The police searched the hotel and found another two of the escaped immigrants.

Other immigrants said they had been hiding at a Marsalforn guesthouse owned by Joseph Vella.

The trial continues and is expected to stretch till Sunday morning.

Lawyer Lara Lanfranco from the Attorney General’s Office prosecuted.

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