Man 'freed over drug case appeal'

Mr Marsden spent more than two years in prison awaiting his trial

A Bristol man who was jailed for 25 years for conspiring to import drugs has been freed on appeal, his lawyer said.

Steven Marsden was found with 50,000 pills hidden in his car as he entered Malta from Sicily three years ago.

Tests showed the tablets were a "legal high" drug but Maltese authorities prosecuted him because they claimed he thought they were ecstasy.

Mr Marsden has always maintained he knew the tablets were a legal drug.

He said he had hidden the drugs simply to avoid being stopped by customs.

'So frustrating'

Two months after Mr Marsden was arrested, tests on the pills showed they were a chemical called mCPP which was legal in Malta at the time.

The prosecution said his intent was to bring in ecstasy and insisted on that basis he should face a charge of conspiracy to smuggle drugs.

However, his lawyer Saima Kappor said the Criminal Court of Appeal in Malta has said he had been been wrongly convicted in January this year and it has now freed him.

She said the the court had agreed with his case that the prosecution had not proved beyond reasonable doubt Mr Marsden had been involved in a conspiracy to import ecstasy.

Ms Kappor said: "The case should have been thrown out after the tests showed the pills were not an illegal drug."

Reacting to the news of his acquittal, Ms Kappor said: "We're ecstatic.

"I wrote to the Attorney General asking when matters would be heard and had been over to Malta more than twice expecting it to be, but there were delays.

"To be put into custody without being charged for a number of months and then be charged with something which does not stand up to the law must be so frustrating for Mr Marsden."