THREE men who prevented the return of 108 refugees to Libya in 2019 lost their appeal to dismiss the criminal charges against them at a court in Malta today.

Early on March 26 2019, Abdalla Bari, Amara Kromah and Abdul Kader escaped Libya — where they were held in slave-like conditions and tortured by human traffickers — on a rubber boat with 114 others. They hoped to reach safety in Europe. Six people died along the way.

Later that day, an oil tanker named El Hiblu found the rubber boat floating in international waters in the central Mediterranean and brought them aboard.