Maltese accountants win European court case

Malta has, for the second time this week, lost a case before the European Court of Human Rights.

The new case was instituted by seven accountants - Paul Mercieca, Andrew Mercieca, Raphael Aloisio, Steven Cachia, Stephen Paris, Malcolm Booker and Edward Camilleri - who are partners in an audit firm.

They explained that proceedings had been brought against them in Malta over alleged negligence and fraud in the manner they drew up an audit report and financial statements. They said that the time they had been given to appeal against a preliminary judgement had been reduced from 20 to nine days in what they said was a restrictive interpretation of the rules on time limits .

As a result, they pleaded, they had been effectively denied the right to lodge an appeal, in breach of the right of access to a court.

The European Court upheld the plea. It found that an appeal at the end of the proceedings on the merits, even if it could be guaranteed under Maltese law, would not have sufficed to annul the consequences suffered by the applicants as a result of the wrongful dismissal of their appeal at an earlier stage.

The court, therefore, ordered Malta to pay the applicants €6,000 plus tax.

The first case decided against Malta this week was instituted by The Times after it claimed that a conviction by the Maltese courts amounted to a restriction of freedom of expression, a plea which the European court accepted.

The applicants were represented by Dr Stefan Frendo and Dr Tonio Azzopardi.