Mark Vella, 43 of Qormi and Carmel Spiteri, 63 and Carmel Ciappara, 39 both of Luqa, were this morning arraigned in court in connection with the discovery of fireworks in an export container on board a ship on Monday.

Mr Vella, a cargo handler, was accused of keeping fireworks at home without a licence, forging documents and making false declarations.

Mr Spiteri and Mr Ciappara were accused of illegally selling fireworks, carrying fireworks in a vehicle without a permit and illegally exporting or trying to export such items.

They pleaded not guilty and were all granted bail.

Their defence lawyers explained to journalists that the accused were taking part in a fireworks competition in Catania following an invitation sent to St Andrews Fireworks Factory. The firework launchers were sent to Catania a week before. They said that a number of Maltese had already bought tickets to attend the event.

In a separate case, two men, one from Togo and one from Somalia, were today remanded in custody after being found in possession of false Spanish ID cards.

Police Inspector Edel Mary Camilleri presented to the court two poor quality counterfeit ID cards where on the back, in the section for gender, the letter M was written. The accused, he said, did not know that M stood for Mujer which actually meant woman in Spanish. The numbers on both cards were exactly the same. He said the accused had claimed they paid €600 each for the cards and they apologised to the Maltese people for the problems they had caused.

Magistrate Michael Mallia remanded the two in custody as they had no fixed address and are awaiting repatriation.