A 24-year battle to obtain compensation for expro­priated land was yesterday taken to the courts after a couple was told by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi in an e-mail that there was no money to pay them.

Unfortunately, this depends exclusively on the available financial resources that the country can identify in order to settle these arrears- Prime Minister

The e-mail was sent a year ago but through sheer hesitation to get embroiled in a court case, the couple filed a constitutional application only after years of being sent from one department to another with no end in sight.

The valuable land in central Birkirkara was used in part to build what is now Tumas Fenech Street, 71-year-old Espedito Sammut and his wife, 74-year-old wife Rose, said.

They claimed workers sent by the director general of works destroyed a 295-year-old farmhouse in order to build the road, without having the necessary legal requirements and permissions.

Arable land used by the family to sustain themselves was destroyed and to add insult to injury, their own home was damaged while the road was being built.

For years the couple were sent “systematically and infallibly” back and forth between government departments without a result.

On further research, the couple found that the land had not been formally expropriated and none of the legal procedures were followed, leaving the couple to suffer from what was “effectively abusive and illegal” action.

The couple’s grandchildren then contacted Dr Gonzi by e-mail in 2010 and were told Transport Minister Austin Gatt had informed him that “compensation can only take place once funds were made available to Malta Transport to cover arrears for expropriations that had taken place a long number of years ago”.

Dr Gonzi also said: “Unfortunately, this depends exclusively on the available financial resources that the country can identify in order to settle these arrears. At this stage, I am unable to be more specific but I will continue to strive to create economic activity that will allow us to settle these dues as well.”

In the application, lawyers Emmanuel Mallia and Arthur Azzopardi said that while they understood the government’s right to expropriate land, sufficient compensation had to be given.

“The applicants are still legally the owners of the land and notwithstanding this, they were denied the use and enjoyment of the property, which was destroyed without the proper legal procedure and without receiving compensation” the lawyers said.

The lawyers also referred to the case of former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, who was awarded €838,800 in compensation after a power station was built near his home known as L-Għarix, in Delimara, Marsaxlokk.

They requested the court to declare a breach of the couple’s fundamental human rights and to liquidate for compensation.

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