A judgment by the Magistrates' Court has been annulled by the Court of Criminal Appeal after it was found to contain irregularities.

The Attorney General appealed from a judgment delivered last February by the Magistrates' Court in the case filed by the police against Alfred Attard.

The accused had been acquitted of charges of having, as a public officer, received money or other gifts in connection with his work.

Attard was also acquitted of having demanded payment over and above his salary from third parties, to which he was not entitled.

The Magistrates' Court had acquitted Attard on the basis that the charges against him did not result on a prima facie basis.

The Attorney General appealed on the grounds that the first court had not put the case off, as it should have, in order for witnesses to testify and that therefore the judgment was null and void.

In its judgment the Court of Criminal Appeal declared that it was worried about the confused nature of part of the judgment appealed from.

The first court had declared that the charges against Attard did not result on a prima facie basis. However, the case against Attard was not a compilation but summary proceedings. As a result, the Magistrates' Court ought not to have handed down a judgment on a prima facie basis but ought to have delivered a definitive judgment.

Furthermore, the Magistrates' Court had not remitted the records of the case and a copy of the judgment to the Attorney General, as it was bound to do at law.

The appeal court added that by declaring that the proceedings against Attard had been exhausted, the Magistrates' Court was using terms that were normally used when criminal action was filed on the complaint of a third party.

In this case the charges against Attard were prosecutable ex officio and, therefore, the conclusions reached by the Magistrates' Court were inapplicable.

As a result of all these irregularities, the Court of Criminal Appeal concluded by annulling the judgment of the Magistrates' Court.

The case was remitted to the Magistrates' Court to be reheard.

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