Cap. 254 Art. 66Prohibition of transmission by post of certain articles.

(1) Any person who sends or tenders, or makes over in order to send by post any creature, or any article or thing of any kind, or any sharp instrument, including but not limited to any explosive, inflammable, dangerous, dirty, noxious or deleterious substance, which is likely to soil or damage other postal articles in the course of their transmission by post or to physically injure and, or threaten in any manner any person or persons shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine (multa) of between one thousand euro

(€1,000) and twenty-five thousand euro (€25,000), or imprisonment for a term from one to twelve months, or to both such fine and imprisonment:

Provided that such a penalty shall not apply to postal articles which contain articles generally or specifically permitted by the postal operator concerned.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this Act, if a postal operator has reason to believe that any postal article has been posted or sent by post in breach of subarticle (1), the postal operator shall withhold delivery of any suspect postal article to the addressee and shall refer the postal article to the Police forthwith. The postal operator may, with the consent of the Police, return the postal article to its sender or forward it to its destination or destroy or otherwise dispose of such article as the case may be. In all cases, the postal operator shall inform the Authority of any suspect postal article and of any action taken in relation to it within the next working day.

(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of subarticle (2), any postal article which is reasonably believed to contain any explosive, inflammable, noxious, dangerous or deleterious substance or other thing which may expose any person to injury shall be immediately referred to the competent authorities as the case may be. The postal operator shall also inform the Authority thereof forthwith.

(4) Where a postal article has been detained under subarticles

(2) and (3), the sender of such article shall be liable to prosecution as if such article has been delivered in due course by post.

(5) In case of a postal article addressed to a person legally entitled to provide television broadcasting services in Malta which consists of audiovisual material which has been posted or sent by post only for the purpose of its being broadcast on television according to the provisions of the broadcasting legislation, the postal operator shall immediately refer the matter to the Authority which, if satisfied that the said article has been posted or sent by post for such purpose, shall direct the postal operator to deliver such postal article to the addressee without further examination.