A man who was handed a jail term for the possession and trafficking of one gram of cocaine has claimed that his human rights were breached because he was not assisted by a lawyer during police questioning.

On the night of June 28, 2008, during a party at Gianpula, the police had arrested Letizia and Louise Sultana in the car park, as they were about to consume cocaine.

Letizia Sultana had told police that she had been given the drug by her boyfriend, Daniel Gatt, who was summoned to the area using the girl’s mobile phone and was subsequently arrested.

Questioned by the police, Mr Gatt had explained that he had gone to the party with his friends and was looking for his girlfriend but hadn't seen her. He then received a call from her on his mobile phone, directing him to an area where he was the arrested.

As the right to legal assistance during interrogation had not yet been introduced, Mr Gatt – who was then 18 and with no prior experience of police questioning - had released a statement without speaking to a lawyer. In the statement he admitted to having bought a gram of cocaine for €70 in the presence of his girlfriend while at club Numero Uno with the intention of consuming it with her.

Mr Gatt was charged with the trafficking and possession of cocaine and subsequently found guilty and jailed for six months and fined €750. Mr Gatt’s appeal from this sentence is still pending.

Mr Gatt's legal team - lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri, Amadeus Cachia and Angie Muscat - filed an application arguing that Mr Gatt qualified as a “vulnerable person” in the eyes of the law, not least on account of his age.

They pointed out that the case before the court of magistrates was based on two statements, released by the accused and his girlfriend, both of which had been made without the benefit of legal representation and without access to the suspect’s police file.

This constituted a breach of his fundamental right to a fair hearing, as laid out in both the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Previous judgments, they argued, had established that a breach was committed the moment that access to legal assistance was refused, independently of the accused’s circumstances, character, previous convictions and vulnerability or lack thereof.

Additionally, the statement released by Mr Gatt’s girlfriend, which had also been taken without legal assistance, had been used against Gatt, they continued.

Mr Gatt is therefore requesting a retrial or that the court reopens the proceedings against him.

The right to legal assistance during police interrogation is a relatively new concept, originally tabled in Parliament in 2011 by Dr Debono.