The Court of Appeal on Friday cleared the husband of former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono from all fraud and misappropriation charges brought against him in 2015.

The charges had led to Debono’s resignation from the Nationalist Party parliamentary group.

The Court of Appeal, in its judgment, ruled that the allegations made against Anthony Debono were not credible.

The prosecution had appealed an earlier judgment by Magistrate Neville Camilleri who had ruled that information provided by Joseph Cauchi against the minister’s husband had not been sufficient to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.

This ruling has now been confirmed on appeal by Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, who ruled that no person can be found guilty on simple suspicions.

The testimony provided by Cauchi was “neither credible nor plausible”, and the evidence submitted was “unfounded or unproved suspicions”. Cauchi’s testimony was not corroborated by others, the court ruled.

In her judgment, Herrera said that the status of informant ought to be reviewed and that criminal action should be taken against any whistleblower who did not act in good faith “as seems to have happened in this case”.

"The status of informant is very important as an instrument to ensure good governance. It places great responsibility both on those who grant such status as well as the person who receives it, and therefore it must not be abused to recover funds," the court said.

The charges filed against Mr Debono, a 59-year-old Nadur resident, included misappropriation, fraud, abuse of power, falsification of documents, making false declarations, committing crimes he was duty bound to prevent and preventing people from giving evidence.

Lawyer Joe Giglio was defence counsel.

In a first reaction, PN leader Bernard Grech said the court had confirmed a "campaign of lies" against Debono, and urged the Prime Minister, as Labour Party leader, to apologise.