Two police inspectors and a police superintendent, who investigated the case involving 35 women accused of, among other things, performing immoral acts in public and participating in a brothel, admitted yesterday that their investigations had not led them to any evidence of prostitution.

Moreover, during the same sitting, the police officers all confirmed that they were ordered to meet outside Police General Headquarters in plain clothes to carry out raids on a number of bars and clubs and that they were ordered to arrest anyone wearing a thong.

The police officers were testifying in the compilation of

evidence against 35 women who are pleading not guilty to the charges brought against them.

Twenty of the women are from Russia, seven hail from Hungary, four are from the Czech Republic, two are Slovakians, one is Estonian and one is Polish.

There was a different atmosphere in magistrate Antonio Mizzi’s courtroom yesterday, and this became apparent when the several lawyers present began to ask questions during their cross examinations of the witnesses who were testifying. Some of the replies were received with murmurs and at one point the women present laughed out loud. One of the lawyers was also heard saying that he was asking the questions to determine the “seriousness of this comedy”.

The first police inspector to take the witness stand was Paul Vassallo who took an oath of the charges brought against the women. He explained that on 18 November at around 1.15am, he formed part of a group of police officers who raided the Midnight Cowboy club in Paceville. He said that he had arrested a woman there who, he said, was not dressed inappropriately but who featured on several photographs that he found on a computer at the DJ stand in the club.

When pressed for an explanation, Insp. Vassallo said that in the photographs the woman was wearing tight shorts and a short top. He said she was dressed “scantily” as she danced in front of patrons in the club. When asked, he said the shorts were tighter than those of a gymnast.

The Inspector said that the investigators have no evidence of prostitution but still charged them with keeping, managing or participating in a brothel. However, he explained that the prosecution was basing its case on performing immoral acts in public.

“The fact that they were dancing means they were participating in immoral acts because of the way they were dressed,” he said.

Replying to further questions, Insp. Vassallo admitted that the law did not define dancing and therefore made no distinction between dancing, lap dancing and folk dancing. He also confirmed that he knew that the Employment and Training Corporation granted permits for people to be employed as dancers and said that he did not investigate on what grounds these permits were granted.

During his testimony, the Inspector admitted that it was an interpretation of the investigating team that lap dancing is an immoral act. When asked whether the police officers arrested any Maltese clients who were inside the club at the time of the raid, the Police Inspector replied in the negative “because they were not doing anything wrong at the time”.

Police Superintendent Antonello Grech said he had raided a club in Bugibba called Secrets. He said some of the girls he found there were wearing underwear. “Our orders were to arrest anyone wearing a thong because that is immoral,” he said. When asked whether he had ever seen women wearing a thong on the beach, Superintendent Grech said: “I don’t go to the beach because I don’t have time”.

He then qualified his reply: “Wearing a thong on the beach is one thing but wearing a thong in a public place is illegal. Wearing a thong on the beach is not illegal. Our instructions were to arrest anyone who was wearing a thong.”

Police Inspector Therese Sciberras testified that she raided a club called AO in Bugibba. She said that when she entered, she saw a girl pole-dancing in the

middle of the club, a girl sitting on the sofa with a client, one was standing next to the bar and another one was in the changing room at the time.

Asked how these women were dressed, Inspector Sciberras said one was wearing a see-through transparent black dress with her underwear showing, one was wearing a red bikini, another was wearing a brown bikini and the one in the dressing room was naked because she was changing at the time.

The case was deferred until January for the continuation of the compilation of evidence.

Magistrate Antonio Mizzi presided over the case. Police Inspector Louise Calleja prosecuted while various lawyers, including Dr Joseph Arrigo, Dr Joe Giglio, Dr Manwel Mallia, Dr Robert Abela, Dr Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, Dr Franco Debono and Dr Charmaine Cherrett, appeared for the accused.