A Valletta hawker has been acquitted of selling pirated CDs and DVDs for lack of evidence.

Alan Debattista was arraigned by the police at the request of trader Grace Borg.

He was accused of selling copied CDs and DVDs from a stall in Valletta on December 17, 2007.

The accused denied the charges and said he only sold original products.

Ms Borg exhibited photographs which she took, of a stall outside City Gate from where, she said, her employees had bought the pirated CDs and DVDs.

She said she had been some distance away from the stall in order not to be seen while taking the pictures. As a result, she could not identify who was selling the CDs and DVDs.

Mario Giacchino, Pablo Cachia and Roderick Mifsud, who are all employed by Ms Borg, confirmed they had bought the CDs and DVDs but could not identify the accused as the seller.

Martin Bajada, an expert nominated by the court, confirmed that the products were non-compliant.

The accused was acquitted after the court noted that no one had positively identified him as the man who sold the pirated products.