A man who has spent the past nine years facing criminal action has been acquitted by a court which found that there was “an absolute lack of evidence” linking him to the theft of a two vans full of pharmaceutical products. 

Tripoli-born Ismael Habesh, 47, from Mosta, had been singled out as the alleged thief by a third party who had tried to sell some of the stolen medical products, dumping them at the private clinic of a medical practitioner in Naxxar back in 2009.

The third party, Raymond Abela, told police that the products “had been handed over to him by Ismael Habesh,” thereby sparking off criminal investigations against the latter.

Mr Habesh was charged with the aggravated theft of a Citroen Berlingo and Peugeot loaded with medical and pharmaceutical products on a January afternoon in Qormi back in 2009.

He was also charged with having caused voluntary damage to third party property and with having received stolen goods.

Upon taking over the case in January 2018, magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech observed that although the criminal action had been instituted in 2010, no progress had been registered since September 2014, so much so that over a span of 8 years, only 12 witnesses had testified.

Indeed, not only had there been a lapse of five years between the filing of the charges in 2010 and the actual commencement of the proceedings, but during many hearings no progress whatsoever had been registered, the court noted.

Faced with this status quo, magistrate Frendo Dimech had, upon being assigned the case, immediately ordered the prosecution to conclude its evidence stage by the following sitting to ensure a “just and fair trial” for the accused.

In spite of repeated requests by the Attorney General for the prosecution to produce Raymond Abela as witness, the police ultimately informed the court that the man who had originally divulged the allegedly incriminating information and against whom criminal action had been taken, was nowhere to be found.

The police “had no clue as to whether this man was still in Malta,” the court observed, adding that there was “an absolute lack of evidence” to prove the prosecution’s case, which meant that the accused was to be acquitted of all charges in his regard.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia were defence counsel.