Steve Marsden has launched an appeal against his 25-year prison sentence and €60,000 fine saying that there was no evidence at all which could support a conviction according to law.

Mr Marsden was jailed on Wednesday after jurors found him guilty by eight votes to one of conspiring to import 50,000 ecstasy pills in the summer of 2006.

The pills were hidden in the panels of his Mitsubishi Pajero and he was stopped by police as he was driving off the catamaran on July, 9, the night of the World Cup.

He was originally charged with importing and trafficking in ecstasy but two months into the compilation of evidence, court expert pharmacist Mario Mifsud testified that the pills were not ecstasy but contained a chemical known as mCPP.

The website Fair Trials International (FTI), which is a group campaigning for fair trials of those facing charges in a country other than their own, later got hold of Mr Marsden's case. They held that the prosecuting authorities are refusing to acknowledge that he had committed no offence by importing the drugs, which at the time were not illegal.

Mr Marsden's story has also been featured on the BBC website which highlighted that he was held in preventative custody for two years after bail had been denied because of fears he might abscond despite having a friend and business here.

Mr Marsden's defence lawyer Joe Brincat yesterday argued that the pills contained mCPP which was not illegal at the time, however the chemical gives similar effects to MDMA which was.

The prosecution in the trial by jury had led with "a very populist theory" that he was cheated whilst in Spain where he was given mCPP pills "which was of an inferior quality instead of the true ecstasy".

Dr Mifsud never said that the pills were "inferior" but actually had the same "feel-good effects", Dr Brincat told the court.

While the prosecution had said they could not bring witnesses from Spain, it expected the jurors to take it on their authority that he had been cheated and got mCPP instead of MDMA, the lawyer argued.

He insisted that this was an "absolutely gratuitous assertion not founded on any evidence or on any circumstantial evidence". There was no unequivocal evidence that Mr Marsden had agreed upon one thing and was given another.

Testifying on Monday, Police Inspectors Norbert Ciappara and Dennis Theuma had said that when they asked if he was hiding anything illegal, Mr Marsden denied it.

This point, his lawyer said, was important because he was not in possession of anything illegal as the pills were not scheduled in Maltese law at the time.

The prosecution had also stressed that the pills had been hidden, which meant nothing, as it was not a crime to hide, for example, the face of one's stereo away in the car.

Mr Marsden hid the pills because he was going to drive through southern Italy which was a very dangerous place and did not want to risk the pills being stolen.

Another point raised by the defence was that when coming out of the catamaran he had no obligation to say anything or to cooperate with the police as there was nothing illegal in the car.

Mr Marsden held that he was wrongly convicted on the facts and simply for the reason that there were no criminal acts or agreements.

He asked the Criminal Court of Appeal to reverse the verdict, revoke the judgment and acquit him of the charge.