Suspect released after illegal arrest
Magistrate overturns magistrate’s decision
A man was released yesterday after his arrest, ordered by a magistrate, was declared illegal.
Sean Grima, 24, from Cospicua was picked up by the police on May 10 after he failed to appear in court in the morning and Magistrate Marseann Farrugia ordered his arrest and revoked his bail conditions.
He is facing charges of slightly injuring and harassing his girlfriend.
Defence lawyers Andy Ellul and Vince Micallef argued that, while the magistrate was within her rights to order their client’s re-arrest, she could not revoke his bail without him being given a chance to defend himself.
For their client to have his bail revoked, he would have to undergo “due process” and then arraigned for breaching his bail conditions. It was only after being convicted that his bail could be revoked, they argued.
The fact that the law was not followed breached his human rights, the lawyers added.
They had drawn Magistrate Farrugia’s attention to this during a sitting on Wednesday but she insisted that she was correct, the lawyers said.
She then put off the case, which would have continued 11 days later, meaning that, had they not acted, Mr Grima would have remained behind bars throughout for no reason, the lawyers added.
They filed an application claiming illegal arrest which, was dealt with by Magistrate Neville Camilleri yesterday.
Police Inspector Anna Maria Micallef told Magistrate Camilleri that she had not asked Magistrate Farrugia to either order the man’s arrest or to revoke his bail.
Similarly, lawyer Maurizio Cordina from the Attorney General’s Office said that he did not know how Magistrate Farrugia had arrived to her decision.
He said that the law listed two options when dealing with such instances. The first was for the police or the Attorney General to take action over the breach of bail conditions and the second for the magistrate to order action to be taken against the accused.
Magistrate Camilleri noted in his decree that the prosecuting officer had pointed out that she had not asked for Mr Grima’s arrest or for his bail to be revoked. Thus, he deemed Mr Grima’s arrest illegal.
Mr Grima is expected to file a constitutional application claiming breach of human rights.