A jury was told this morning how a dozen immigrants who had been trying to leave Malta in March 2006 ended up swimming back to Cirkewwa after the speedboat which was taking them away broke down and was abandoned. Some migrants failed to reach land and died.

Lawyer Lara Lanfranco from the Attorney General's Office delivered her statement on the case at the opening of the trial of Gordon Dimech, 36, from Ħamrun, who is pleading not guilty to human smuggling when he allegedly helped migrants to leave the island.

In the bill of indictment, the Attorney General said that the accused had helped the migrants to leave aboard a speedboat. He was allegedly paid some €5,800.

Dr Lanfranco, from the Attorney General's Office, said the police interviewed four migrants when they were found in Cirkewwa in March 2006, and they explained how they had actually been trying to leave Malta and not come in.

They said they had bought a boat from some Maltese but it sank in rough seas as they left Malta. Some migrants died but others survived.

Two of the migrants said that they had already unsuccessfully tried to leave three months previously, in December.

In that case, they bought a boat and left from Marsamxett  after paying  Maltese people who also gave them also two tanks of fuel. The Maltese who saw them off in December included the accused Gordon Dimech.

Dr Lanfranco said the evidence showed that Mr Dimech knew what the migrants wanted the boat for and that 14 people were in the boat. The December case also failed because of the weather.

"You must not take the approach that the people who help migrants leave the island should not be penalized but given the Gieh ir Republika because you think that there are too many in Malta" Dr Lanfranco told the jurors as she argued that aiding and abetting was against the law and "God Forbid it was not".

Taking the witness stand, former Police Inspector Jeffrey Cilia said that in March 2006 he was the duty officer and had questioned the immigrants.

The immigrants said that they met Mr Dimech and his friend Dennis McKay (now deceased). They bought a boat from Dennis McKay in December.

In a statement to the police, the accused, who is being represented by Veronique Dalli and Stefano Filletti, had said that the immigrants wanted to buy the boat.

Some eight immigrants got into the boat near Valletta waterpolo pitch and left. The police arrived at that time and Dennis McKay ran off because he was carrying the money. The next day the boat was found abandoned near the breakwater.

One of the migrants returned and demanded the boat back. The two Maltese men said the police had taken it, but offered to sell another one.

The case continues.