A judge yesterday declared null an appeal filed by far-right lobbyist Norman Lowell against a two-year suspended jail sentence he had been given for incitement to racial hatred last March 27.

As a result, Mr Lowell will be disqualified from taking part in the Euro-parliamentary elections next June.

The Criminal Court of Appeal, presided over by Mr Justice David Scicluna, declared the application by Mr Lowell and his lawyer Emy Bezzina null on grounds that it was not filed in the correct format as provided by law.

According to law, an application for an appeal must have a brief statement of the facts, the grounds of the appeal and a demand that the judgment of the first court be reversed or varied.

The court ruled that when Dr Bezzina gave a brief statement of the facts in the appeal application he was economical with words in his description of the facts to an extent that it rendered the application null. Paragraphs that were supposed to describe the facts were missing, the judge pointed out.

The leader and founder of the far-right movement Imperium Europa, who had ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Euro-parliamentary elections, had been found guilty of inciting racial hatred and insulting the President of Malta in speeches in Rabat and Qawra in 2006. He was eventually given a two-year jail term suspended for four years and fined €500 but Mr Lowell vowed he would fight it and shortly after the sentence filed an appeal.

Speaking to the press on the steps of the court building in Valletta, right after the judgment by the Criminal Court of Appeal, Mr Lowell insisted that the "the fight for liberty goes on".

Dr Bezzina complained that the court had rejected the appeal on a technicality without going into the merits of the case.

He said that when lawyers file applications that have too much detail, the courts complain and now that he had been telegraphic in his application the result is that the case was not even considered.

As a consequence, he said, the suspended jail term now became operative and, as a result, Mr Lowell would not be allowed to stand as a candidate for the European Parliament elections as was planned.

Dr Bezzina said this was viewed by Mr Lowell as a denial of his rights in a democracy and a constitutional case would be filed.