A magistrate cleared a man of heroin possession after noting the prosecution failed to prove that the brown substance was, in fact, heroin.

Emanuel Mizzi, 42, was cleared of the charges brought against him after a court ruled that the case was not been proven beyond reasonable doubt as no evidence, forensic or otherwise, had been presented to prove that the substance was heroin.

Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras heard how Mr Mizzi was found lying on the ground outside a bank in Zabbar on September 4, 2009. A packet of cigarettes containing a small plastic sachet with a brown substance was found near the man.

Mr Mizzi, who had a history of drug abuse, was taken to the Zabbar police station where he asked a policewoman, who was cataloguing the belongings, to let him have a closer look at the bag.

When she picked up the sachet, he snatched it from her and gulped it. Subsequently, he was taken to hospital.

The accused began to suffer the symptoms of a heroin overdose so doctors administered an antidote, Naloxdone, and his condition improved.

The accused denied he had consumed heroin and claimed the substance was a medicine, the name of which he could not recall.

Magistrate Galea Sciberras noted that while the circumstances surrounding the case pointed towards it being heroin, there was no proof that it definitely was the drug.

None of the doctors who treated the accused had testified in the case and neither had any tests been carried out on the substance in the packet.

She, therefore, ruled that the charges had not been proven and acquitted Mr Mizzi.

Lawyer Mark Busuttil was defence counsel.