Two Leisure Clothing Limited directors only spent two days in custody before being granted bail yesterday despite claims by the prosecution that other workers had been approached and told to lie to the police.

Magistrate Carol Peralta granted the firm’s managing and marketing directors bail after noting, among other things, it was only a few of the hundreds of workers who had complained.

Bin Han, 46, from San Ġwann and Jia Liu, 31, from Birżebbuġa stand charged with human trafficking and the exploitation of Chinese and Vietnamese people working for their company based in Bulebel.

Mr Bin, the managing director, has Maltese nationality, and though Mr Jia is Chinese he has been living in Malta for four years.

Only a few of the hundred workers had complained

They are also charged with misappropriating the employees’ wages, failing to pay wages, overtime and allowances and failing to comply with employment conditions.

Magistrate Peralta had been hearing a case filed by the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations regarding four of nine former workers who are

claiming €50,000 in wages owed to them. These cases have now been withdrawn and incorporated in the criminal case.

When the prosecution raised fears that the accused could abscond if they are granted bail, the magistrate asked: “Would the accused leave because of accusations, albeit serious, made by just a few individuals when compared to the large number of workers who work in this factory and when no evidence has yet been brought to court and at the risk of losing everything?”

He also asked: “Aren’t the accused comforted by the fact that the absolute majority of workers did not make the same complaint?” The magistrate argued that the accused had an interest that the company continued to operate in their own interest and that of its workers.

“The consequences of fleeing would be terrible,” he said.

Possibility of contaminating testimony remote

He added that in all these years that the company had been operating from Malta, it was the first time that the directors were charged with such offences. Moreover, he said, the possibility of the accused contaminating any testimony was “remote”.

He granted them bail against a deposit of €10,000 and a €25,000 personal guarantee on condition they sign daily at the Żejtun police station, they are home between 11pm and 6am and they surrender their travelling documents.

Earlier, the court heard prosecuting officer Joseph Busuttil saying the police had evidence in hand that other company workers were approached and told to lie to the police. Tampering with witnesses of the prosecution was “almost obvious”, he added.

He said the fear that the accused would abscond was also strong, referring to the fact that Mr Bin had purchased tickets to fly to Rome. Upon learning this, the police went to his house to carry out a search but he denied it until four or five suitcases ready packed were found.

“If he was really going on a work trip, why would he lie to us? And if he was really going for only two days, why would he pack so many things,” he asked.

Defence lawyer Edward Gatt argued that the prosecution only took the action it did because of reports in the media. Describing the human trafficking charge as “very shady” and “a dream”, he said his clients had been arrested and given police bail for two or three weeks “while police were dilly-dallying” on this case.

The parent company in China paid “head-hunting firms” to engage workers before sending them to Malta, something “sought after” in China and Vietnam because it was “prestigious”.