French sect leader files Constitutional appeal

French sect leader Alain Schmitt has filed a Constitutional Appeal contesting a judgement given on April 30 which threw out his case in which he claimed breaches of human rights in the way he and his partner had been treated by the police, in prison and by the courts.

The court had also considered his arrest warrant to be valid and the extradition proceedings were considered valid and regular.

Mr Schmitt, 49 and his Belgian partner Laurence Liegeios are wanted by the French authorities to serve prison terms after being convicted for kidnapping and extortion. They were arrested in January and after the Magistrate's Court ordered their extradition, they appealed the decision and lost.

They then filed a Constitutional case claiming breaches of human rights.

But Ms Liegeios, 47, left Malta after withdrawing her case saying she was missing her eight-year-old son Quinten, who had been in Malta but was then sent to live with his grandparents in France after she was detained.

In France, she is serving a 15-month term out of prison, wearing an electronic tag so she can be monitored by the authorities.

Mr Schmitt, who is nearly blind, stayed on to fight the case.

In his appeal, Mr Schmitt is arguing that the Civil Court, in its Constitutional Jurisdiction, had completely ignored his 45 original requests by restricting deliberately the interpretation of his right to resort to a Constitutional remedy and thereby refraining from addressing the constitutional violations and the legal objections.

He stated that the first judgement was null and void at law and that the Acts should be sent back to the First Hall for the case to be heard anew by a different judge.

Lawyer Emmy Bezzina signed the Constitutional Appeal.

Mr Schmitt also has two petitions pending before the President`s Office and the Ministry for Justice for his situation to be considered from a humanitarian aspect.

In this Constitutional Appeal, reference is also being made to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to which the Attorney General is objecting and the First Hall not even made reference to it.

Dr Bezzina said that resort to the European Court in Strasbourg was being contemplated.