Absence of lawyer violated arrested person's rights

The Constiuttional Court of Appeal has confirmed a judgement which found that the rights of an arrested person were violated when he was not assisted by a lawyer during police interrogation.

The case was filed by Alvin Privitera and the original case was decided by the Constitutional Court in October 2010.

Mr Privitera, then 18 years old, had been arraigned on drug charges in April 2009 but his lawyer, Franco Debono, challenged the fact that his client was denied access to a lawyer, insisting it was breach of his right to a fair hearing.

Mr Privitera had been arrested in his home in Fgura in April 2007 and was immediately interrogated. The questioning continued at Police General Headquarters, in Floriana, and took a number of sessions. But at no point was Mr Privitera assisted by a lawyer.

The first court had commented on the fact that the teenager had been subjected to a strip search in his home in the presence of a number of police officers, arguing that the situation left such an impression on him it appeared he had, as a consequence, made a statement to the police.

It also pointed out that Mr Privitera was left in a holding cell for 17 hours when he was taken to police headquarters before he was interrogated, without him being given an explanation for his arrest or told about the seriousness of the charges being brought against him.

Mr Privitera’s statement to the police, the court said, had to be considered in the light of these facts and also the fact that this had been his first encounter with the police. The court ruled that case law of the European Court of Human Rights had established that the right to a fair hearing required that the accused be given the benefit of the assistance of a lawyer, even at the initial stages of police interrogation. The lack of such assistance would constitute a restriction of the defence rights of the accused.

At the time of Mr Privitera’s arrest, Maltese law made no provision for an accused person to be assisted by a lawyer during police interrogation. The position changed with the enactment of a legal notice earlier this year giving the arrested person access to a lawyer.

The accused was assisted by Dr Debono and Charmaine Charret.