The government has recommended a presidential pardon for the three students and a lecturer who stand accused of having hacked into a popular app FreeHour back in 2022.
In a government press release sent on Tuesday, the cabinet said it discussed the case and took note of FreeHour's position on the matter. FreeHour has previously said it wanted a "positive outcome" for the students.
The cabinet also noted how at the time of the alleged offence, Malta lacked the necessary legal framework to regulate ethical hacking.
“For these reasons, the cabinet decided to recommend to the President that a pardon be granted to the students and the lecturer charged in the case,” the press release read.
The statement concluded that the lecturer and students were informed of the development in a meeting with Justice Minister Jonathan Attard.
Last week, Prime Minister Robert Abela told Times of Malta the cabinet will discuss the case and decide "on whether to exercise its prerogative to extinguish these proceedings."
Students Michael Debono, 22, Giorgio Grigolo, 21 and Luke Bjorn Scerri, 23, face charges of gaining unauthorised access to the application. Grigolo is also charged with making a change to the app, although he then reversed the application to its previous state.
Lecturer Mark Joseph Vella, 45, is charged with being an accomplice to these crimes, as he proofread an email the students sent to FreeHour, informing them of the vulnerabilities they found in their app.
All four pleaded not guilty to charges.
Last week, the PN and new party Momentum called on the authorities to drop the charges and urged a reform of Malta's cybersecurity laws to protect ethical hacking.
In October 2022, the students were arrested after they highlighted vulnerabilities in FreeHour, an app that helps students manage their schedules.
The students had e-mailed FreeHour to inform the company of the security flaw and requested a reward - or ‘bug bounty’- a common practice in ethical or ‘white hat’ hacking. Instead of a payoff, the University of Malta students were arrested, strip-searched and had their computer equipment seized.