A man first apprehended by the police on suspicion he harboured a suspect in the Sliema double murder had his one-year jail term in a different case quashed by a judge due to a procedural error made by the prosecution.

Jason Caruana was arrested last year during a police raid in Floriana which resulted in the capture of the prime suspect in the August 18, 2020 murder, Daniel Muka.

Caruana was at first believed to have harboured Muka but was later released by the police and has not faced any charges related to the murder, in which two men were killed in their own home.

However, he was then charged with breaching bail conditions imposed on him in another case and was jailed for 12 months. He also forfeited his €3,500 bail bond and was re-arrested until the case is concluded.

However, the prosecution filed the wrong bail decree in court and only realised it had committed the mistake after it had rested its case.

Caruana’s lawyers, Franco Debono, Francesca Zarb and Marion Camilleri, appealed the conviction over breach of bail conditions, arguing the court could have never found him guilty since the bail decree filed in the acts by the prosecution was not the right one.

They also argued that the one presented was filed late and should have never been allowed by the magistrate.

Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja, presiding over the Court of Criminal Appeal, upheld this argument, ruling that the prosecution was “procedurally wrong” when it filed the bail decree after having rested its case.

He declared the document as inadmissible evidence and cleared Caruana of the charges, annulling the prison sentence and the bail bond confiscation.