Cannabis cultivator Daniel Holmes, who is serving a 10-and-a-half-year jail term, is insisting that the harsh punishment he received was in breach of his right to a fair trial.
In an appeal to the Constitutional Court, the 37-year-old Welshman produced a list of 20 court decisions to illustrate that, by comparison, being jailed for over a decade for cultivating a small amount of cannabis was excessive.
Mr Holmes had been arraigned in June 2006 after the police found him in possession of 1.063 kilos of dried cannabis and 0.24 grams of resin with a total value of €11,694.
He was growing cannabis in one of the rooms of his apartment in Għajnsielem.
In November 2011, he was sentenced to 10 years and six months behind bars and fined €23,000.
This was confirmed on appeal last year.
Earlier this month, the First Hall of the Civil Court, in its constitutional jurisdiction, awarded him €7,000 in compensation after ruling that criminal proceedings against him took an unreasonable amount of time.
The judge, Mr Justice Anthony Ellul, also upheld Mr Holmes’ claim that he had been exposed to arbitrary punishment and received a tougher sentence than others who had been found with larger quantities of drugs.
In his appeal to that judgment yesterday, Mr Holmes noted that, despite this ruling, the judge did not offer any form of remedy.
He also claimed he had been deprived of the right to legal assistance during police interrogation and of the right to adequate legal assistance.
The First Hall had noted there were flaws in the legal aid system as lawyers were stretched thin and underpaid.
In Gozo, where Mr Holmes’ case was heard, there were only two legal aid lawyers available and none were specialised in the complexity of his case.
These shortfalls in the system resulted in inadequate legal representation, he argued, insisting on a remedy.
As he has done in other appeals, he challenged the Attorney General’s discretion to decide whether a drug case should be heard in the Magistrates’ Court or during a trial by jury – with the latter allowing for a much harsher punishment.
The previous court had ruled that this was in breach the European Convention which provided for protection against arbitrary punishment.
However, the court failed to provide a remedy in its judgment that may eventually translate into a lesser jail term, he held.
Lawyers Franco Debono and Michaela Spiteri are representing Mr Holmes.
| Name of accused | Amount of cannabis (grams) | Jail term | Judgment date |
| Walter John Cassar (PG) | 3,500 | 8 years | March 29, 2007 |
| Ekramy Fadl Alla Aziz Mobarak (PG) | 14,500 | 12 years | November 26, 2007 |
| Roberto Conte (PG) | 9,500 | 12 years | January 10, 2008 |
| Clayton Galea | 1,000 | 6 years | April 3, 2008 |
| Anthony Seychell | 3,500 | 12 years | March 5, 2008 |
| Alex Mallia (PG) | 2,439 | 9 years | February 27, 2008 |
| Paul Muscat | 19,000 | 18 years | January 30, 2008 |
| Joseph Mifsud | 8,000 | 18 years | June 24, 2009 |
| Chris Grech | 3,402 | 12 years | March 25, 2010 |
| Anthony Calleja (PG) | 927 | 6 years | May 18, 2011 |
| Albert Grima (PG) | 1,445 | 7 years | January 18, 2012 |
| Angelo Fenech (PG) | 6,647 | 8 years, 6 months | April 3, 2012 |
| Eun Hee Kim (PG) | 9,911 | 13 years | June 20, 2012 |
| Stephen John Bradbury (PG) | 8,000 | 15 years | July 10, 2013 |
| Jeremy Ciantar (PG) | 7,500 | 10 years, 6 months | October 7, 2013 |
| Claudio Porsenna (PG) | 2,500 | 8 years | September 26, 2012 |
| Censina Zerafa (PG) | 10,000 | 5 years | January 28, 2010 |
| Antoine Debattista (PG) | 2,025 | 9 years | July 15, 2004 |
*Information taken from the appeal of Mr Holmes, who was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for possession of 1,063 grams of dried cannabis and 0.24 grams of resin. PG = Pleaded Guilty