The prosecution in the trial by jury of two men charged with human smuggling yesterday shot down claims by the defence that their clients had been framed.

Lawyer Lara Lanfranco, from the Attorney General’s Office, said eight immigrants had independently given specific details proving the accused were guilty of smuggling.

She was speaking during her closing address yesterday in the trial of Phillip Azzopardi, 67, of Birkirkara and company director Joseph Vella, 54, of Victoria.

According to the prosecution, they had smuggled the immigrants around August 2003 from the Floriana temporary detention centre to a Buġibba garage, owned by Mr Azzopardi, and from there to the Marsalforn guesthouse, owned by Mr Vella, where they were kept for some time as they waited for a boat that would take them to Italy. In fact, the immigrants were arrested in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, allegedly waiting for the boat. The immigrants told the police they had paid the two men varying amounts of money for the chance to escape.

Dr Lanfranco argued yesterday there was no way the immigrants could have invented details like the location of the guesthouse and the garage because they had never left detention since arriving here.

“The coincidences are just too significant to ignore,” she said, pointing out the police had done their work well and that there was enough evidence to secure a conviction on the basis of the immigrants’ evidence.

She was reacting to the arguments made by defence lawyers Emmanuel Mallia and Arthur Azzopardi that the police investigation was shoddy and that the immigrants could not have been held in the guesthouse because this was meant to have happened at the peak tourist season in Gozo and someone would have noticed something.

Dr Mallia also said that, while the immigrants were supposedly caught about to leave the island on a boat, no proof was ever presented in court.

The case continues.