Emanuel Camilleri, known as il-Bully, will not be given a Presidential amnesty for collaborating with the police and providing information that led to the arrest of an alleged drug trafficker, a police statement said.

Replying to reports that have been published in the local media in recent weeks, including this newspaper, the police statement said that the information provided was erroneous, not only in the sequence of events but also in the procedures mentioned.

A particular report, the police stated, even mixed up a Presidential amnesty and a remission that is given to inmates for good behaviour, which falls under the sole jurisdiction of the Prison Authorities and is independent from the Police Corps.

The statement concluded by saying it was evident that the reports were based on false information, adding that the public could easily be deceived and misinformed.

Media reports had claimed that Camilleri was expecting the Court of Appeal to reduce his sentence after he collaborated with the police in exposing another drug baron, Dutch man Hassan Ben Sala.

In 2005, il-Bully was sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment and fined Lm50,000 after he was found guilty of trafficking large quantities of drugs on several occasions and of attempted murder on a high-ranking police officer – Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar – and his family, by placing a bomb on the officer’s doorstep.

Camilleri is also awaiting another trial by jury where he stands accused of conspiring to traffic around four kilograms of cocaine and one kilogram of marijuana in 2002, to which charges he has pleaded guilty.

A total of 19 arrests had been made in relation to the conspiracy, which had been masterminded in the Corradino Corrective Facility and also involved other notorious criminals including Charles Muscat il-Pips, Mario Camilleri l-Imniehru, and Alfred Bugeja Il-Porporina.