Criminal defense lawyer Jose Herrera has called on the government to abide by a European Courts of Human Rights ruling last month urging the Maltese authorities to release a man who has been held for more than five years for breaching bail conditions.

The case involved 63-year-old Lawrence Gatt, who has been in prison since July 2006.

Mr Gatt had been accused of drug trafficking but was granted bail in August 2001. The conditions included a personal guarantee of €23,300 and restrictions on his leaving his place of residence.

But following a complaint that he had been seen in Valletta during his curfew hours, the Criminal Court revoked his bail, ordered him to be re-arrested and to pay the guarantee.

As he was not able to pay, imprisonment-in-default proceedings were brought and the sum in guarantee was converted into detention at the rate of one day per €11.50, namely 2,000 days (or more than five years and six months) imprisonment.

Mr Gatt filed a constitutional complaint which was ultimately dismissed on appeal in February 2008. He then filed his case before the ECHR.

Dr Herrera, who is also a Labour MP, said the Maltese government held the ECHR in high esteem and nominated the most senior judges on the land to sit on it.

He complained that although he wrote to the authorities alerting them to the judgement, a number of days had passed and he still had not heard anything from anyone.

He pointed out that it was ridiculous that his client was facing nine years in prison for breaching his bail conditions by 15 minutes.

Dr Herrera said he could file an application before a magistrate claiming illegal arrest or he could hold the government responsible for damages since, according to the ECHR judgement, his client had been held in illegal arrest.

He noted that although the government could refer the case to the Grand Chamber, another European court, 99 per cent of referrals to this chamber were dismissed. Moreover, this chamber took two to three years to decide on the validity of a case and it did not make sense to leave this man in prison for such a period.

He called for the setting up of a select committee to study such judgements and judicial reviews and submit proposals for the necessary changes to be made to legislation.

Dr Herrera noted that if someone was granted bail against a personal guarantee of €50,000 and breached the conditions of bail, that guarantee was converted into a prison term €11.65 a day, meaning a lifetime prison sentence, which is laughable. This made the law very dangerous.