Two directors of the now-shuttered textiles factory Leisure Clothing who were jailed on human trafficking charges are claiming double jeopardy.
Leisure Clothing’s managing director Bin Han and marketing director Jia Liu, both Chinese nationals, had each been jailed for six years last year when an appeal court found them guilty of human trafficking.
Han and Liu have now filed an application in the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction claiming double jeopardy. The law does not allow a person to be charged twice over the same incident.
In their application, they noted that in a judgment handed down by Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech in 2016, ‘’they had been fined €500 for breaching the Employment and Industrial Relations Act in November 2014. They paid the fine.
In separate proceedings before the Magistrate Courts, they were charged with human trafficking and breaching the employment law. Both cases included the same accused during the same timeframe, were based on the same facts and included the same charge – breaching employment law was included in the human trafficking case.
They called on the court to declare that this was in breach of their rights and to annul the appeal judgment.
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.
Leisure Clothing made headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2014 after police raided the factory and accused its director of having exploited hundreds of workers.
The investigation led to a magisterial inquiry, with Chinese and Vietnamese workers testifying that they had been fed "inedible" food and lured into coming to Malta with the promise of high wages.
A court heard that while employees were paid €70 a month for six 14-hour days per week, managing director Han received a performance bonus of €30,000 a year.
A magistrate’s court had initially found Han guilty and acquitted Liu. But Han, who also has Maltese nationality, was given a suspended sentence, meaning he did not spend time behind bars.
Last year the criminal appeal court ruled that the two company directors were guilty and sentencing them each to six years in prison.
Lawyers Jose Herrera, David Camilleri, Therese Commodini Cachia, Pio Valletta and Jason Azzopardi signed the application.