Joseph Fenech, known as Żeppi l-Ħafi left the court house with a smile on his face yesterday when the three pending cases against him were dropped after he invoked a presidential pardon granted to him in 1996.
The cases revolved around his involvement in the attempted murder of then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami's personal assistant Richard Cachia Caruana, a cocaine trafficking case and a burglary.
The high profile attempted murder, in fact, was the reason for the presidential pardon. Former President Ugo Mifsud Bonnici gave him the pardon on a recommendation by Dr Fenech Adami in May 1996.
It was granted on condition that he testifies in the case and helps the police. He did give evidence but his testimony was not enough to convict Meinrad Calleja, the man he identified as the mastermind behind the plot to kill Mr Cachia Caruana.
A second suspect, Ian Farrugia, whose palm print was found on the victim's car, was also acquitted while the only man to be convicted, Charles Attard, known also as Iż-Żambi admitted he had been the one to stab the victim.
At one point, a neighbour of the victim, Nicholas Jensen even testified that he had seen Il-Ħafi in Mdina on the night of the stabbing.
Another of the cases that was dropped yesterday concerned a cocaine trafficking case which also involved Meinrad Calleja.
Mr Calleja was jailed for 15 years and fined Lm30,000 while his sister Clarissa, who also stood charged in connection with the deal, was acquitted.
Even Mr Fenech's alleged associates in the burglary, Abraham Grima and Tarcisio Borg had been found guilty of the theft and each received four-year suspended jail terms.
The cases against Mr Fenech had gone on for so long because there was a pending constitutional case instituted by Mr Attard against the Prime Minister, the Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police, saying that the presidential pardon should never have been granted.
But Mr Attard recently dropped the case after declaring he no longer had any interest.
In yesterday's sitting, lawyers Franco Debono, Roberto Montalto and Marion Camilleri asked the court to drop the cases against their client after they had been pending for a number of years.
This request had been filed in September 2007 and was only decided yesterday when Mr Justice Noel Cuschieri declared that the presidential pardon was a general one and hence the cases could be dropped.