Eight committee members of the Naxxar Peace Band Club were cleared of storing explosives in its basement because none of them was aware they were there.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera also concluded that none of the eight club officials had access to the basement where the explosives were found – in a room hidden behind a cupboard. Besides, they were not involved in organising fireworks for the village feast.

The officials were club president Carmel Grech, 57; secretary Victor Gauci, 60; assistant secretary Edward Azzopardi, 35; treasurer Joseph Martin Camilleri, 69; youth director Louis Bugeja, 30; women’s section director Mary Chetcuti, 47; band delegate Anthony Cauchi, 50; and NGO coordinator Raymond Chetcuti, 55.

The case against another three committee members, Ivan Gauci, 30; David Sammut, 31; and Joseph Buhagiar, 56, is still pending. Club administrator Mark Agius, 45, was charged separately and sentenced to two years in jail. He appealed and a decision is still pending.

The men were taken to court in the aftermath of the March 12, 2008, explosion in Ħal Dgħejf Street, Naxxar, that resulted in the deaths of Paul Camilleri, 47, and Sina Sammut, 35.

Mr Camilleri was in his garage, where the explosion seems to have occurred as a result of fireworks stored or manufactured there.

Ms Sammut, the next-door neighbour, had taken her two children to school and then gone shopping. She had just returned home when the blast happened.

On the other side of Mr Camilleri’s residence was the home of the Bugeja family. All of them were out except for Rachel, then 15, who was asleep in her bedroom. She miraculously crawled out alive, saved by a wardrobe that landed over her bed and shielded her from the falling ceiling.

Police Inspector Nikolai Sant testified that after that explosion several reports about illegally-stored fireworks had been received. On May 3, 2008, the police searched the basement of the Peace Band Club, where they found the hidden room.

Inside the room were boxes filled with explosives.

Investigations indicated that Ivan Gauci, David Sammut, Joseph Buhagiar and Mark Agius had keys to the basement. There was no link between the explosives found there and the March 12 blast, Mr Sant pointed out.

He said Paul Camilleri was a feast enthusiast but was not involved in making fireworks. He did not rule out that Mr Camilleri could have been manufacturing fireworks to use in case the Labour Party won the March 8 general election, which was in fact won by the Nationalists.

The magistrate noted that the eight committee members – none of whom had a basement key – had issued a statement to the police saying they did not know explosives were stored in the club’s basement and that their role on the committee had nothing to do with fireworks.

Lawyers Joseph Giglio, Arthur Azzopardi and Martin Fenech represented the accused.

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