Drug dealer's appeal dismissed over misspelt name

An appeal filed by a man, who had been jailed for five years for importing cocaine, backfired when a judge declared it to be null as the man's name was spelt with an extra letter "m" - precisely the same misspelling on which the defence was basing the appeal.

Emanuel Gauci had been jailed for five years and fined Lm3,000 when the Magistrates' Court had found him guilty of importing 2.2 kilogrammes of cocaine from Canada into Malta on and before April 23, 2001.

Mr Gauci appealed on two grounds. First he claimed that the magistrate's judgment could not be executed because in the printed judgment, which he had obtained from the courts, he was referred to as "Emmanuel" when his name was "Emanuel", with one "m".

Secondly, the magistrate had reached a guilty judgment based on a wrong appreciation of the facts.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, in the appeal court, started by dealing with the first ground of appeal.

He heard lawyer Joseph Giglio, for Mr Gauci, argue that he had based his appeal - which he filed under "Emmanuel Gauci" - on the typed, official copy of the magistrate's judgment which was given to him when the judgment was handed down.

Dr Giglio added that the existence of a handwritten original of the judgment was only brought to his attention at a later stage. However, he said, he could not have based his appeal on the handwritten judgment as it was indecipherable.

The law stated that an appeal was to be filed using the name that appeared on the official copy of the first court's judgment - and that was what was done. He has based the appeal on the typed, official copy given to him in court.

But the Attorney General replied claiming that it was the handwritten copy that was the true original and not the typed one. After hearing submissions, Mr Justice Galea Debono noted that Mr Gauci's birth certificate read "Emanuel" and that charges had been issued under that name, that is with one "m".

The judge noted that two typed copies of the judgment, bearing the name "Emmanuel", were signed by both the court registrar and the magistrate.

However, the handwritten judgment, with the name "Emanuel", was also signed by the magistrate and, as he personally wrote it, it was to be deemed to be the original.

After bringing up this ground of appeal, the judge ruled, the lawyer had fallen "between two stools".

This was because, having filed the appeal under the name "Emmanuel" the appeal was to be declared null as the appellant's name was "Emanuel" with one "m".

Police Superintendent Neil Harrison and Police Inspector Norbert Ciappara prosecuted.