Go ahead given for constitutional case

A magistrate yesterday authorised the lawyer of a man and a woman charged with perjury to file a constitutional application claiming that their right to a fair trial had been breached.

Magistrate Saviour Demicoli ruled that the application filed by Dr Vincent Galea, for Joseph Azzopardi and Caroline Bianco, was not frivolous and vexatious and gave the lawyer the go ahead to file a constitutional application.

Magistrate Demicoli heard how, in an appeal judgment, Chief Justice Vincent DeGeatano had "declared without hesitation that the two had lied under oath" and ordered that Azzopardi and Bianco be charged with perjury in the Magistrates' Court once the police investigate the case.

Dr Galea argued that through his comment the chief justice had attributed guilt to his clients before they had gone through the court procedure. Their right to a fair trial had been breached and their presumption of innocence prejudiced.

Magistrate Demicoli heard how Inspector Carlo Ellul had not investigated the matter but charged the two on the grounds of the appeal judgment.

After evaluating the judgment the magistrate upheld the lawyer's request to file a constitutional case.

In the appeal judgment Chief Justice DeGaetano had reduced a two-and-a-half-year jail term, handed down on Azzopardi by the Magistrates' Court, to 10 months.

Azzopardi was found guilty of seriously injuring Rita Ebejer when he intervened in a fight between her and Bianco, with whom he lived at the time.