A man who prepared an envelope containing white powder, raising Anthrax fears, today had his six-month jail term converted to a three-year probation period by the Court of Appeal.

The man, Marco Risiott, a post office worker, had, on October 27, 2001, prepared an envelope which had 'American Embassy Malta' written on the front and Arab script copied from a sweets packet at the back.

He also affixed a German postage stamp.

Inside, he enclosed a newspaper cutting and some powder which resulted to be gypsum.

Mr Risiott had told the police that he had intended this to be a joke on his workmates and he intended to 'discover' the envelope at the central mail room.

However his brothers had found the envelope in his apartment and alerted the police.

Mr Risiott was subsequently taken to court and sentenced to a six-month jail term and a general interdiction for five years.

The Appeals Court noted how there was worldwide alarm over anthrax at the time of the incident. It was true that the accused had not taken the envelope to his workplace, but he had already committed the crime when he prepared the envelope which, he knew, could be seen by his brothers.

The fact that he tore up the envelope when he realised that the police were about to find it showed that his intentions were not entirely innocent.

The sentence imposed by the first court was within the law, the Appeals Court said. However it resulted that the accused was a recovering drug addict and it therefore felt it should not disturb his drug rehabilitation programme, in the interests of society. No supervision order could be issued when the jail term was of six months.

The Appeals Court therefore placed Mr Risiott under probation for three years.