Anna Spiteri, 47 of Marsa, was today jailed for 17 years and fined €37,000 after a jury late yesterday convicted her of importing 3.5 kilos of heroin, worth about €160,000, on September 17, 2008 on her return to Malta on a flight from Tunis. The drugs were hidden in two laptop bags.

Jurors returned a 7/2 guilty verdict and had also asked for clemency. She was facing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Sentence was delivered by Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano,

The prosecution during the trial had punched holes in her version of events and questioned how she could think that travelling to a foreign country with a man she hardly knew could be considered normal.

Under cross examination, Ms Spiteri told prosecuting lawyer Leonard Caruana she thought it perfectly normal to have travelled with a man whom she hardly knew and stayed at a hotel she did not know the address of.

She testified on Monday she had no idea there were drugs in the suitcase, which had been packed by her former boyfriend, Nagi Al Margash, whom she hardly knew at the time. She confirmed she had visited Tunis five times with Mr Al Margash and every time she had no idea where she was or the address of the hotel she was staying in “because everything was written in Arabic”.

She said that on the last couple of trips she did become a little suspicious of him and decided to record his passport number just in case he abandoned her there. However, despite these doubts she still allowed him to pack her bag.