An appeals court has brought a sentence of life in prison down to 30 years for the Libyan man who took part in the robbery that led to the death of hairstylist Alfie Rizzo.

Jurors had found Ibrahim Shnishah guilty of complicity in the robbery that resulted in the murder of Mr Rizzo inside his Gzira hair salon in 1998.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono had presided over the one-week trial in 2004 in which Mr Shnishah was convicted. Handing down a life sentence, he had described Mr Shnishah, who was 20 years old at the time of the crime, as falling into the category of people considered to be a menace to society.

Quoting case law, the judge said this was a case where "the protection of the public makes it necessary that a long sentence, possibly the maximum sentence, be passed".

Two years earlier, the man who had actually committed the murder, Aimen Said El Baden, was sentenced to 25 years in prison by the same judge.

In the appeal against Mr Shnishah's sentence, Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, Mr Justice Joseph Filletti and Mr Justice David Scicluna ruled it needed to be proportionate to that handed down to the actual murderer.

Defence lawyer Joe Brincat argued there was not sufficient evidence for his client to be convicted and that the jail term was definitely excessive.

He also submitted that the verdict had been affected by irregularities in the procedure and the misinterpretation and misapplication of the law.

The appeals judges dismissed all of these points except that the sentence was excessive.

They also pointed out that while Mr Justice Galea Debono had taken into account the fact that the accused was a sort of ring leader of a male prostitution ring of Libyan men, Mr Shnishah had not been charged in this regard.

The appeals court decided to reduce the prison term from life to 30 years.