Former Sliema mayor Nikki Dimech claimed yesterday that he had suffered a “miscarriage of justice” when he was sentenced to a one-year jail term and banned for life from holding public office.

In an appeal, Mr Dimech said his conviction for bribery was “unsafe and unsatisfactory” adding that although the court had intended to clear him of the charge of vilifying the prosecuting police inspector, the acquittal was not included in the judgment.

Mr Dimech was convicted earlier this month. He was found guilty of bribing the council’s former contracts manager in 2010.

Through his lawyer, Roberto Montalto, Mr Dimech said the magistrate’s interpretation of the law was incomplete because a number of essential elements did not result from the evidence produced in court.

He said that even if one had to evaluate the evidence of Stephen Buhagiar, the man who claimed to have been asked for a bribe by Mr Dimech, the crime of corruption did not result at law.

If anything, he should have been found guilty of unlawful exaction in which he asked for money he was not entitled too, the lawyer argued in the appeal.

He asked for the judgment to be declared null and for him to be acquitted.

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