An Appeals Court this morning confirmed the bail granted on Monday to former Police Inspector David Gatt, rejecting an appeal by the Attorney General.

Dr Lara Lanfranco from the AG's office, had argued during the appeal proceedings that there was a whole list of charges against Dr Gatt, including that he formed part of a criminal association. The charges, she said, were very serious.

Some of them even showed that Dr Gatt had tried to hinder a witness, Dr John Zammit Montebello, in the cases against Darren Debono and Vincent Muscat (over the HSBC Qormi hold-up) when Dr Gatt was not even charged himself.

There was also evidence that he had connections with shady people.

Edward Gatt, defence counsel, said that legally, the Attorney General could not go into the substance of the case during consideration of bail. When there was an arraignment, the Magistrate looked the criminal record of the accused to see if he could be trusted, and hence, granted bail.

In this case, PC Mario Portelli, who had made the allegations against Dr Gatt, had a criminal record and Dr Gatt absolutely did not.

The fact that the police had found a board game about the Mafia or a DVD about Toto Riina did not make Dr Gatt untrustworthy.

Mr Justice Michael Mallia after suspending the sitting, decided to confirm bail.