A Libyan national has been acquitted of smuggling cannabis resin into prison and trafficking it after a court ruled that it could not believe the version of events given by two other inmates who had know each other.
The case dates to February 2009 when Diaeddin Arab, 49, was charged with possessing and trafficking cannabis resin, smuggling it into prison and being a repeat offender
The court observed that following a decision by the first court, the accused had fled to Libya in April 2009 but returned out of his own will in September 2015.
He was sent to in prison and held in a six-bed dormitory. Two of the prisoners with whom he shared his dorm were Tarek Mahmoud and Kingsley Wilcox, who had both been there before the accused.
A routine search of the dorm had yielded a one-centimeter square block (0.16 grams) of cannabis resin, which was found on Mr Mahmoud's bedside table.
Mr Mahmoud had immediately admitted that the block was indeed cannabis and had told the prosecution that it had been given to him by the accused the day before. He also said that he and the accused had abused of the drug together in the cell. Mr Mahmoud confirmed his statement before the duty magistrate and again before the court but passed away before he could be cross-examined.
Mr Wilcox confirmed Mr Mahmoud's version of events but said he did not smoke the drug.
The accused, on the other hand, denied possessing the drug, sharing it with his inmates and using it in jail.
Magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia noted that the entire case revolved around the credibility of the witnesses: that is, whether the court believed the version given by Mr Mahmoud or that of the accused.
In his statement, Mr Mahmoud had said that when the accused was admitted to his cell a few days before the incident, he had told him that he had smuggled in some "smoke" and had asked what "the system was like" so that he could "burn the grass" and escape the prison warders' censure.
According to Mr Mahmoud, the accused popped out a small plastic bag from his mouth which contained the "button sized" cannabis resin and showed it to Mr Wilcox and Mr Mahmoud.
The latter continued to say that he had smoked the grass twice: once with the accused and once alone before the incident.
The accused categorically denied the charges, explaining that he used to abuse of drugs in the past but after being diagnosed with a terminal illness a few months before he was imprisoned, he had stopped taking drugs.
Legal procurator Juliana Scerri Ferrante, who was appointed court expert, chose to believe Mr Mahmoud's version because it was corroborated by Mr Wilcox.
After considering all three versions carefully, the court came to the conclusion that it could not share the opinion of the legal expert for various reasons.
It was "extremely difficult" for a person to manage to smuggle drugs into prison due to the checks carried out by the prison officials on both prisoners and visitors, the court said.
"Therefore, when despite everything, a prisoner succeeds in smuggling in drugs, the drug would have the value of gold for him."
The court therefore found it rather improbable that a prisoner would decide to trust two other inmates whom he had never seen before and that he had managed to smuggle in the drug in his mouth. Had he done so, he would have risked his wrongdoing being reported by the inmates.
The court also found it difficult to believe that the accused, who was only to spend a few days behind bars, would have left such a 'valuable' item as the drug in the possession of inmates he did not know.
Mr Wilcox's testimony was also doubtful since he had shared the cell with Mr Mahmoud for months and therefore the court could not exclude the fact that he was trying to cover for Mr Mahmoud.
Moreover, no other items - such as tobacco or rolling paper - were found to indicate that the accused had been abusing of cannabis.
The court therefore cleared the accused of all the charges.
Police inspector Spiridione Zammit prosecuted. Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia appeared for the accused.