House arrest means effective detention, lawyer argues

A lawyer yesterday filed a constitutional application asking the court to declare that time spent under "house arrest" did not constitute release from custody.

Lawyer Joe Brincat, a Labour member of Parliament and a former Justice Minister, argued that "house arrest" constituted a form of detention as was recognised by jurisprudence in the European Court. Maltese jurisprudence, on the other hand, did not recognised it as such.

Dr Brincat filed the application in the First Hall of the Civil Court, in its constitutional jurisdiction, on behalf of his client James Demanuele.

The lawyer noted that in September 2005 Mr Demanuele had been arrested and charged with causing damage, threatening people and escaping from police custody.

He had been granted bail against a Lm10,000 deposit but the amount was too big and he could not pay the bail bond. Three months later, in December that year, his bail conditions were altered to a Lm300 deposit and he was ordered not to leave his home without court permission. (This is commonly referred to as "house arrest" although the term does not feature in Maltese law.)

In May 2006 he was re-arrested when he was found to be outside his home when, according to him, he was on his way to hospital.

His case was decided by the Magistrates' Court and he was jailed for 18 months. He appealed the judgment and the case was scheduled to be heard after summer.

In November 2006, the Court of Criminal Appeal increased his jail term to one year, one month and 15 days and ordered that the time spent in custody be deducted from his jail term.

Effectively, Mr Demanuele had already spent that time in custody by the time of the appeal judgment, the lawyer said.

In his application yesterday, Dr Brincat argued that his client's right to a trial within a reasonable time had been breached in terms of article 5 of the European Convention.

His client's right for bail had been breached due to the lengthy nature of the proceedings as he ended up spending more time in custody than his actual jail term.

Dr Brincat thus called on the court to declare that "house arrest" was actually time spent under arrest and to declare that his client's fundamental rights had been breached.