A man serving an 18-year jail term over a road rage incident in 2005 is seeking a re-trial claiming that his conviction case had hinged on his police statement which had not been made in the presence of his lawyer.

Stephen Pirotta, 46, made this request in an application filed against the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner.

In 2010, a trial by jury had found Mr Pirotta guilty of stabbing a motorist in the chest as he sat in his car in Qormi.

The victim had been protesting that Mr Pirotta had hit his side mirror while overtaking. After trying to drive to St Luke’s Hospital, the victim passed out in Hamrun but was taken to hospital in an ambulance, where emergency surgery saved his life.

Mr Pirotta's legal challenge is based on the fact that when he had admitted to stabbing another motorist during interrogation on September 28, 2005 , he had been denied the right of legal assistance.

In his application, Mr Pirotta argued that his admission was a crucial piece of evidence, as otherwise the case would probably not have been solved. At the time, there were no law provisions ensuring the right to legal assistance during interrogation and access to the police file for the accused and his lawyer. Such shortcoming breached his fundamental right, he claimed.

He also backed his argument citing a recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights handed down last month, in which it ruled that denial of legal assistance during interrogation, even when the subject filed an admission, constituted a breach of fundamental rights.

As for the remedy, Mr Pirotta referred to a 2008 European Court ruling which concluded that the best way to seek redress in such circumstances would be to reopen proceedings and hear the case from scratch.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Amadeus Cachia, as well as legal procurator Gerald Bonello, signed the application.