Chief Justice elected to the European Court of Human Rights

Chief Justice Vincent de Gaetano has been elected to serve as a judge on the European Court of Human Rights, where he will succeed Judge Giovanni Bonello.

He won 114 votes while the other Maltese nominees, Mr Justice Joseph Filletti and Madame Justice Abigail Lofaro got 23 and 61 votes respectively.

The Maltese government had originally nominated Chief Justice de Gaetano, Mr Justice Filletti and Mr Justice Camilleri but the ECHR refused the nomination three times and insisted one of the nominees had to be a woman, for gender equality's sake.

Last September, the Justice Ministry issued a fresh call for applications and specified that at least one of the short-listed nominees would have to be a woman.

The government received 14 applications, including seven from women.

Mr Justice de Gaetano is to take up his new post within three months.