Two directors of the now-shuttered textiles factory, Leisure Clothing, lost a bid to be released from jail pending a court judgment on their claim of a breach of their fundamental human rights.

Managing director Han Bin and marketing director Jia Liu, both Chinese nationals, asked for an interim measure but Madam Justice Audrey Demicoli ruled that they did not manage to satisfy the requirement for such an extraordinary proviso.

The two were convicted of having exploited Vietnamese and Chinese employees of the Bulebel-based company, paying them a pittance while forcing them to work long days with few to no breaks and in poor conditions. They were each jailed for six years in January after an appeals court reversed a suspended jail term.

Leisure Clothing was a major textile manufacturer in Malta, sewing garments for high-end labels such as Emporio Armani and Karen Millen. Owned by Chinese firm CICET, it shut down in 2017 following the arrest of the two directors. It had opened in Malta in the 1980s.

The magistrates’ court had initially found Han guilty and acquitted Jia. But Han, who also has Maltese nationality, was given a suspended sentence, meaning he did not spend time behind bars.

The attorney general had appealed the decision and the court of criminal appeal found in favour of the prosecutors, ruling that the two company directors were guilty and sentenced them each to six years in prison.

The two men were also to split the costs of the case and a €200,000 fine against Leisure Clothing was confirmed.

In a fresh application filed last month, the company directors claimed a breach of their right not to be tried twice over the same crime, claiming that, while facing criminal proceedings, the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) initiated action against them.

They asked the court to order their release while their case is being heard and eventually decided. But Madam Justice Demicoli rejected their request, ruling that they did not manage to prove they will suffer irreparable harm if not released from jail until the court hands down its final decision on their claim.

She noted that interim measures are urgent in nature and apply only where there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm. Such measures are decided in connection with proceedings before the court without prejudging any subsequent decisions on the admissibility or merits of the case in question.

Although the court did not go into the merits of the claim, Madam Justice Demicoli observed that the DIER proceedings, decided by the court in 2017, were over violations committed between May and June 2016. The crimes over which they were convicted dealt with violations that had taken place in 2014.

Police inspector Joseph Busuttil told the court that the prosecution had withdrawn the charges related to DIER violations in November 2014 once it had amended the charges to include one of human trafficking.

The court also noted that, during their legal submissions over the DIER charges, the directors’ lawyers never mentioned similar charges in other proceedings, as was being alleged now.

Madam Justice Demicoli, therefore, rejected the request for an interim measure and ruled that she will continue hearing the case on its merits.

During the compilation of evidence against the two directors, a Vietnamese Leisure Clothing employee had told the court she had earned €2,681 in eight months working there but only received €150 every two months.

She had explained that she got to know about Leisure Clothing through an agency in her home country. She said she had been promised a basic wage of €685 a month to work eight hours a day, six days a week. She had been told this wage did not include any overtime and other allowances related to her performance and depended on production.

The former factory worker also said she had paid the Vietnamese agent $1,000 and then another $2,500 to land the job.