A man was cleared of all the charges brought against him after the police accused him of breaching bail conditions handed down in another case when in actual fact he had not been granted bail when he first appeared in court.

In November, Paul Camilleri, 48, from Rabat, was charged in court with a crime but he was not brought to court under arrest but charged by citation. He pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him and was released.

Since he was not charged under arrest, he did not need to ask for bail, which effectively means granting freedom, under certain conditions imposed by the court, to a person accused of a crime.

However, the presiding magistrate ordered the man not to approach any of the prosecution’s witnesses.

Yesterday, Police Inspector Raymond Aquilina accused Mr Camilleri of breaching his bail conditions after the police discovered that he was living with a woman who is one of the prosecution’s main witnesses in the first criminal case which is still pending.

But defence counsel Roberto Montalto argued that even if he breached every single condition imposed by the court at the first hearing of the other case, this could not be considered as breaching bail conditions because his client had never been granted bail since he was charged by citation and not under arrest.

Magistrate Michael Mallia, presiding over this case, ruled that the conditions imposed by the court in the first case were not bail conditions and agreed with the defence that Mr Camilleri had not been granted bail when he first appeared in court. He therefore cleared Mr Camilleri of all the charges brought against him yesterday.

Police Inspector Raymond Aquilina prosecuted while Dr Roberto Montalto appeared for the defence.