Courts entitled to order Security Service to produce phone tapping warrant

The courts are entitled to order the head of the Security Service to produce evidence to show that telephone tapping had been lawfully carried out, Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo ruled today.

He dismissed an action filed by the Attorney General who had requested the court to revoke an order by the Magistrates' Court.

In April 2008 in the course of the compilation of evidence against Marco Pace the Magistrates, Court had ordered the Security Service to exhibit the warrant that authorised telephone interception. The court had also, at that stage of the proceedings, forbidden the parties from asking questions about the warrant.

The Attorney General had requested that this order be revoked on the basis that it was contrary to law but the Magistrates' Court had refused and this court case commenced.

In today ’s judgment Mr Justice Caruana Demajo said that all power vested in the authorities had to emanate from law and had to be exercised in accordance with the law. The word of a public officer that he had acted in accordance with the law was not enough to eliminate the jurisdiction of the courts or to deprive an individual of access to the courts.

The law provided that telephone interception that took place following the issue of a warrant by the Minister responsible was not illegal. It therefore followed that telephone interception without such a warrant was illegal. The courts were therefore entitled to order that the warrant be exhibited in court in order to ensur that the law was observed.

The court therefore found against the Attorney General and confirmed the decree issued by the Magistrates Court.