Two brothers who own an adult club in Paceville were yesterday cleared of running a brothel, six years after the police raided the establishment to arrest anyone they saw skimpily dressed.

As he cleared Raymond Micallef, 53, and his brother, Vincent, 37, both of Sliema, Magistrate Carol Peralta repeatedly apologised for the six-year delay in a case that only had five witnesses.

The Micallefs run Huggins Darlings, one of several adult clubs in Paceville and Buġibba that had been raided in October 2006 when the police decided to crack down on what they described as “immoral acts”.

Eight club owners had been separately charged with engaging the foreigners, with keeping a brothel and allowing their establishment to be used for prostitution and immoral purposes.

Most of them have been cleared but other cases are still pending.

The police had also arrested and arraigned about 37 women who were charged with managing or sharing in the management of a brothel, committing an offence against decency or morals and exposing themselves naked or indecently dressed in public.

The case had stirred controversy as the Maltese law did not have a definition of “immoral acts”.

The court had heard that officers had been instructed to go to the clubs and arrest anyone who was wearing a G-string or was, in their opinion, skimpily dressed.

The women were eventually cleared of the charges brought against them.

Magistrate Peralta found that none of the prosecution’s five witnesses in the case against the Micallefs had testified that the men ran a brothel in Paceville.

They could therefore not be found guilty of the offence.