Three former members of the Peace Band Club committee of Naxxar have been acquitted of all charges linking them to the illegal storage of fireworks in the club premises. 

Ivan Gauci, 34, David Sammut, 34, and Joseph Buhagiar, 58, were charged with the possession and storage of explosives in the basement of the club in 2008.

The police found the material following a tipoff in the wake of the fireworks explosion on March 12, 2008 in Triq Hal Dejf, Naxxar which killed two people and demolished several houses. 

The explosives in the club were found in a tiny space, some one metre square, behind a cupboard in the basement.

Criminal charges were instituted against the accused since these allegedly had access to the basement, even though they persistently denied any knowledge of the explosives stacked there.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera observed that the police had charged the men solely because they were members of the club committee. There was no evidence that the accused had any say in the storage of the explosives in the club basement.

The court noted that all the evidence showed that the dangerous materials had been stored without the explicit or tacit consent of the accused. Indeed, the storage had been carried out behind the accused's back, the court concluded.

The organization of fireworks activity of the club was in fact entrusted to a special committee. The prosecution had brought forward no witness to confirm whether third parties had a copy of the key to the basement where the cache was discovered, the court remarked.

Neither was the club president summoned to explain the procedure related to the letting off of fireworks by the club, the court observed.

On the basis of a lack of proof by the prosecution, the court acquitted the accused of the charges.

Lawyers Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi and Jason Grima were counsel to the accused.

In 2010 the administrator of the club was sentenced to two years imprisonment for illegally storing the fireworks in the building’s basement, metres away from a petrol station in the town’s main square.

Mark Agius, 41, of St Paul’s Bay, “callously” ignored the safety of passers-by unaware of the fireworks stash, Magistrate Silvio Meli said in his judgment."

The judgement was, however, overturned in the court of appeal in April 2016 and Mr Agius was found not guilty.

Eight other committee members were cleared in March 2015.