Owners of house allocated to MLP claim breach of rights

The owners of a house allocated to the Malta Labour Party under a Labour government yesterday filed a constitutional application in the First Hall of the Civil Court.

Philip Grech, Frank Grech, Alfred Grech, Tano Grech, Josephine Diacono, Christopher Grech, May Mifsud, Angela Hili and Maryanne Gera filed their application against the Director of Social Housing.

They claimed they owned premises in St Joseph High Street, Sta Venera, and that the then housing secretary had issued a requisition order on the premises.

The secretary (now the Director for Social Housing) had allocated the premises to the Labour Party to be used as a political club against compensation of Lm164 per annum.

But, the owners claimed, a requisition order could only be issued in the public interest or to provide housing, which was not the case here.

The allocation of premises to a political club was not in the public interest but was solely in the interest of a political party which had been in office when the requisition order was issued.

The owners concluded their applications by calling upon the court to declare that their human rights had been violated and to provide them with a remedy and with compensation.

Lawyers Claire Bonello and Peter Caruana Galizia signed the application.