Middleman in judges' bribery saga loses constitutional case

A court threw out a constitutional application by Anthony Grech Sant, one of the middlemen in the bribery of two former judges, who complained that the time he spent under house arrest before conviction had not been taken into consideration.

In July, Mr Grech Sant was jailed for 20 months after he was found guilty of bribing his childhood friend, former Chief Justice Noel Arrigo, and former judge Patrick Vella in order to reduce the jail term of drug trafficker Mario Camilleri.

Mr Grech Sant filed a constitutional application against the Attorney General, arguing that the period he had spent under house arrest before the trial had not been deducted from his jail term. This, he said, was discriminatory as people in preventive custody had their prison reduced accordingly.

He was released under house arrest in September 2002. The original conditions were very restrictive and the court eventually loosened them and he could even leave house during certain hours. He was sentenced to three years in prison in October 2008 but this was reduced to 20 months on appeal last July.

Sitting in the First Hall of the Constitutional Court, Mr Justice Joseph Micallef ruled that Mr Grech Sant had failed to show the court how he had been discriminated against and, therefore, the court dismissed his request.

This judgment comes a week after Dr Arrigo was jailed for two years and nine months for reducing Mr Camilleri's jail term and exerting influence on other judges to follow suit.

Dr Arrigo had reduced the 16-year jail term of Mr Camilleri, also known as L-Imnieħru, on July 5, 2002. He sat on the Criminal Court of Appeal together with two other judges, Patrick Vella and Mr Justice Joseph Filletti. The latter was never implicated in the case but Dr Vella admitted to accepting €23,000 for reducing the term.