Court dismisses Norman Lowell's rights application

A constitutional application by Norman Lowell, founder and leader of Imperium Europa, was rejected by a court today after it found that his fundamental human rights had not been violated by a judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Mr Lowell, declared that he had been found guilty of inciting racial hatred by the Magistrates Court. He had been given a two year prison sentence suspended for four years and fined €500. He had then lodged an appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal but that court dismissed his appeal on the grounds that the application of appeal did not satisfy the legal requirements and did not contain a short summary of the facts of the case.

Mr Lowell pleaded that the Court of Criminal Appeal had violated his right to a fair hearing because in annulling his application of appeal he had been denied the right to have a second hearing of his criminal proceedings.

He therefore requested the First Hall of the Civil Court to heard and decide the constitutional application with urgency as he wished to contest the European Parliamentary elections.

Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi in his judgment today declared that the rules of criminal procedure were there to ensure that the criminal process was regulated in the best interests of the administration of justice. Any lack of observance of the legal formalities brought about the nullity of a criminal appeal. These rules were well known to all practitioners of criminal law before the Criminal Court.

The court added that the right of access to a court was not absolute but was subject to limitations contained in the laws of procedure. Once the Court of Criminal Appeal had ruled that Mr Lowell's application of appeal was null and void, Mr Lowell could not complain of a violation of his fundamental human rights. Nor could he request a further examination of his criminal appeal as this would be an appeal from an appeal which was not admissible at law.

Mr Lowell's application was therefore dismissed.