The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday revoked two judgements handed down by a magistrates court on 1 June 2005, when two men were found guilty of involvement in trafficking in people.

In the first judgement, Ahmed Moussa Yassine and Ali Samih Taki were found guilty of trafficking in people on and before 21 August 2003, but were both cleared of collaborating with other people with the intention to commit a crime.

Taki alone had been found guilty of withholding passports given to him by other people and had been jailed for two years, while Yassine had been jailed for six months.

Following an appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeal found that the prosecution had not presented the best possible proof regarding the passports and the punishment was exaggerated.

Instead, Taki was given a six-month jail term, suspended for four years.

The appeals court revoked the first court’s judgement and cleared both men of trafficking in people, while it confirmed that they were both not guilty of collaborating with other people with the intention of committing a crime.

The case involved a Lebanese family that had supposedly left Malta (something that the magistrates court had accepted as a fact), but in fact this was not true, and the family had not left the island, according to the judgement handed down by the appeals court yesterday.

It ruled that the so-called proof, as presented by the prosecution, should not have been taken as a fact and therefore the men could not be considered guilty.

Mr Justice David Scicluna presided over the court.

Dr Joseph Brincat appeared for Yassine, while Dr Franco Debono appeared for Taki.