Judge upholds AG's request over procedural hitch

The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday upheld a request made by the Attorney General in the course of appeal proceedings for a prosecuting officer to testify about what documents he had exhibited in the first proceedings.

The ruling was given in the appeal filed by the Attorney General in the case instituted by the police against Simeon Sultana.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono heard that Mr Sultana had been charged on four separate counts of drug possession and trafficking. He had been charged with trafficking in cannabis resin and with being in possession of cannabis. Mr Sultana had also been charged with trafficking in LSD and with possession of ecstasy and LSD.

The Magistrates' Court had, last March, found Mr Sultana guilty of the first two charges brought against him relating to cannabis resin and had fined him Lm300. But the first court had ruled it was not competent to decide on the third and fourth charges relating to LSD and ecstasy as it had not found the Attorney General's order in respect of these two charges in the court file. However, the Attorney General argued that the first court ought to have suspended the issue of a judgment against Mr Sultana until the necessary checks were carried out to see why the Attorney General's consent was missing from the file. But the first court had instead acquitted Mr Sultana.

The Attorney General asked the Court of Criminal Appeal to allow the prosecuting officer in the first court to exhibit the consent of the Attorney General. This request was contested by Mr Sultana's defence counsel.

Mr Justice Galea Debono said the prosecution was alleging that the Attorney General's consent had been exhibited in court together with the charges against Mr Sultana. As the first court had not drawn the attention of the parties to the fact that it had not found these orders in the court file, the parties had not been given the opportunity to make their submissions.

The Court of Criminal Appeal upheld the request filed by the prosecution and authorised Police Inspector Norbert Ciappara to testify on the filing of the Attorney General's consent before the first court.