Ali Reza Farzkenari, a 34-year-old Iranian businessman who holds a Dutch passport, was this morning found not guilty to financing an organisation to commit a crime, conspiring to commit a crime and aiding in the transportation of illegal immigrants to Malta.

Inspector Nezren Grixti said that on March 29, he was informed by immigration police that 32 people were stopped on arrival in Malta on a flight from Tunis. It transpired from investigations that all, except for the accused, were using passports with a false Schengen visa and counterfeit stamps.

When they were arraigned in court all pleaded guilty, except for Mr Farzkenari.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera said that from the evidence brought forward by the prosecution, the accused was not known to the police prior to boarding the bus in Tunis to go to the airport to come to Malta.

While all 32 had arrived from Iran, they had arrived in Tunis on a different plane on a different day and they were all treated and looked after by a certain Hamid.

They all said that they had given money to Hamid in Iran on behalf of a travel agency. When asked if Mr Farzkenari had made the arrangements for them to come to Malta all the Iranians had replied in the negative.

The accused did not give evidence but volunatily released a police statement.

Asked why he had a Dutch passport, he explained that he had obtained refugee status in The Netherlands and subsequently married an Iranian woman in Canada who had Canadian citizenship. He also had a residence in Canada.

Asked if it was true that he had returned to Iran to get his family to Europe, he replied positively and said that he had gone to Iran and went to Tunis with the idea of coming to Malta. He made arrangements for him and his family in Iran with the agency Holiday Travel.

However, when he was in Tunis, he met Hamid who asked him to look after the group of Iranians because he spoke better English than them. So he did help the group out when they found themselves in difficulty. He confirmed that he met Hamid at a hotel in Tunis prior to coming to Malta but he had no idea that the Iranian nationals were carrying false documentation.

Asked if he was in charge of obtaining the false Shengen visas, he categorically denied this allegation and stated that if the group had not been arrested he would not have known anything.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera said that the examination of the facts, it transpired that the accused was not part and parcel of the illegal organisation that brought the Iranian nationals to Malta and the court found the statement released by the accused credible, especially in view his collaboration.