A former postal worker found guilty of drug trafficking has been freed on appeal after a five-year legal battle.

The legal saga began in 2005 when Emanuel Gauci was jailed for five years and fined €6,990 for importing 2.2 kilogrammes of cocaine from Canada on and before April 23, 2001.

He appealed but his claim was thrown out on procedural grounds because his name had been spelt with an extra "m" in the original judgment handed down by the Magistrates' Court.

He then filed a Constitutional case, claiming that his right to a fair hearing had been breached due to this bureaucratic glitch concerning the spelling of his name. The court agreed and confirmed that his right was breached. He then filed another appeal. As a postal worker, Mr Gauci had been asked by his brother-in-law, Anthony Gatt, to speed up the processing of a package he had been waiting for.

When Mr Gatt turned up for the package, he told Mr Gauci it contained gold, so Mr Gauci used his discretion, stuck his hand inside the package felt what he thought was gold, resealed the package and gave it to Mr Gatt. Unknown to him, the package contained 2.2 kilogrammes of cocaine.

The magistrate hearing his case did not believe him and jailed him for five years.

Mr Justice David Scicluna said that after taking into consideration and reviewing all the evidence from scratch, he felt the prosecution had failed to prove that Mr Gauci knew about the drugs in the package.

He revoked the previous judgment and acquitted him of all charges. Lawyer Joseph Giglio appeared for Mr Gauci.