The Criminal Appeal Court today questioned the provisions of the Maltese law on an accused’s right to legal assistance as it overturned a judgement which had send a man found guilty of trafficking ecstasy to six months in prison and fined him €750.

The Appeal Court, presided by Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti, found Jason Cortis not guilty of the crime he had been accused of committing in 2009. It also found him not guilty of having been in possession of cocaine but found him guilty of having been in possession of ecstasy.

Mt Cortis was conditionally discharged on condition he would not commit another crime for a year.

In its arguments, the court noted that the applicant was denied the right to legal assistance at the pre-trial stage as a result of a systemic restriction applicable to all accused persons.

This already fell short of the European Convention requirements on the right to assistance of a lawyer at the initial stages of police interrogation, which might only be subject of restrictions if there were compelling reasons, it noted.

The court referred to the right to legal assistance introduced in Maltese law and said it was debatable how much this law respected the provision of the EU direction on the right to legal assistance, as this right in Maltese law was restricted to just one hour.

The accused was represented by lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Amadeus Cachia.