Middleman in bribery case loses discrimination appeal

One of the middlemen in the bribery of two former judges, Anthony Grech Sant, today lost an appeal from a judgment which had dismissed his claims of human rights violations when the time he spent under house arrest before conviction had not been taken into consideration for the computation of his prison sentence.

Mr Grech Sant was placed under house arrest in September 2002. The original conditions were very restrictive but the court eventually loosened them and he could even leave house during certain hours.

He was sentenced to three years in prison in October 2008 after he was found guilty of bribing former Chief Justice Noel Arrigo, and former judge Patrick Vella in order to reduce the jail term of drug trafficker Mario Camilleri. That was reduced to 20 months on appeal last July.

Mr Grech Sant pleaded that his time under house arrest should be deducted from the prison term, but the court refused and said that Mr Grech said had failed to show how he was being discriminated against.

Mr Grech Sant then filed a constitutional application, arguing that people in preventive custody had their prison reduced accordingly.

The Constitutional Court said that the law stipulated that time spent in preventive custody in the prisons was always to be deducted from a prison sentence. But there was no comparison between house arrest and preventive custody in prison.

There was therefore no element of discrimination against Mr Grech Sant.

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