A man who was held behind bars for four years because he could not pay his bail deposit has been released by a court, which also called for a review of the process of compilation of evidence, to avoid undue delay.
The case was filed by Jonathan Attard, who is awaiting trial for alleged association in selling cocaine.
He said that he was arraigned on November 4, 2008. After his fourth request, he was granted bail in March 2009 but was requested to deposit €47,000. Since he could not afford that sum, he was kept behind bars.
After subsequent requests, the deposit was reduced to €15,000 and then €10,000 but he could still not produce that sum and therefore remained under preventive arrest.
Meanwhile, a co-accused was granted bail and final judgement was delivered.
Mr Attard said there were no reasons for him to be held under arrest since he had cooperated with the police. Furthermore, more than four years had elapsed since he was arraigned, and the prosecution had presented its evidence.
He also argued that his human rights had been breached.
The Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police denied breaching the human rights of the accused. They denied undue delays in the presentation of evidence and said that while they had not objected to bail after the initial presentation of evidence, it was up to the courts to decide on bail conditions.
The court in its considerations noted that the accused had been raising two children alone until his arrest, and he had kept contact with them since.
It was clear that although the bail deposit conditions had been reduced to €10,000 he could still not afford that sum.
"This is another case which shows the need for an overhaul of the way how cases of this sort are heard, where, for various reasons, that are various referrals from the Office of the Attorney General which take years and over which the courts have little control. In this case, the compilation of evidence has been pending for over four years and, according to Police Inspector Grech, the prosecution has not not yet concluded its case. As things stand, even if the accused does not remain under preventive custody, it will still be difficult for him to plan his future and that of his children because he does not know his destiny. The irony is that that another person arraigned separately in connection with the same case was handed final judgement at the beginning of this year," the court said.
Although the charges were serious, the court said, the presumption was in favour of innocence. According to European caselaw, “the amount of the bail must be “assessed principally in relation to the person concerned, his assets ... in other words to the degree of confidence that is possible that the prospect of loss of security.. in the event of his non appearance at a trial will act as a sufficient deterrent to dispel any wish on his part to abscond”
The court noted that the accused had quite a criminal record. But, it said, other factors had to be considered, including the fact that he had been under arrest for four years, that he had been raising his children on his own, that there was no danger of tampering with evidence, and the fact that while in prison he had used the time to continue to learn.
According to the prison's education unit, he had enrolled in several courses and completed them successfully. Such courses included: Basic Sales Techniques, Store keeping, Food-Handling Licence B (all offered and certified by ETC) and ECDL. He also completed a correspondence course called the ‘Way to Happiness’ offered by the International Organisation CRIMINON which focused on Life-skills and living a crime-free life.
The court said the arrest was no longer justified and it ordered that the accused by granted bail, without the need for a deposit.