The police are in the process of filing fresh charges against three officers and a nightclub bouncer indicating the correct time of an alleged assault after the original case was thrown out on a technicality.

Just over a week ago, the four men were cleared of beating a French student in a Paceville bar because the time of the incident indicated on the charge sheet did not match that given by witnesses.

Sources close the prosecution said this would not be a case of double jeopardy because every crime had to have an accurate time and venue.

They argue that if the correct time and venue are indicated, then the case would be referring to a crime altogether different to that indicated in the original charge sheet.

However, it is likely that this legal point will be debated at length in court as a possible line of defence.

The fresh charges were drafted a few days after President George Abela, who heads the Commission for the Administration of Justice, urged prosecuting officers to be careful when issuing charges.

Police Sergeant Ramon Mifsud Grech, 41, from Birkirkara, PC Jean Paul Vella, 24, from St Julians, PC Brian Tonna, 31, from Ħamrun and bouncer Jonathan Micallef, 29, from Birkirkara were cleared of the charges brought against them.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke let the four men off the hook because they could have never been found guilty since the wrong time had appeared on the charge sheet.

The incident allegedly happened at 3.30 a.m. on October 25, 2009 while the charges brought against the accused referred to an incident that allegedly occurred at 11 p.m. that same day.

The alleged victim, French student Jean-Oliver Mesrine told Inquiring Magistrate Edwina Grima that the uniformed policeman who beat him had been drinking. PS Mifsud Grech insists that the mistake on the charge sheet had not been the only reason why the case was thrown out. He says the student had invented the whole story about him and his colleagues.