A former prison inmate who was awarded only half his pension did not suffer a violation of human rights, a court has ruled.

The judgment was given in a constitutional case filed by Paul Hili and his wife against the government.

Mr Hili, a former Air Malta technician, had been sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2008.

Upon reaching retirement age he had applied for his pension and the Director of Social Security had awarded him half the amount of the pension to which he was entitled, he told the court. This, said Mr Hili, constituted a breach of his rights to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment, to freedom from deprivation of his property and of his right to a fair hearing.

Mr Hili testified that he been deprived of his pension because his wife received an invalidity pension.

He added that he had served his prison sentence at the Forensic Unit in Mount Carmel Hospital in bad conditions and without any privacy.

But Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon ruled there was no evidence of inhuman and degrading treatment.

Mr Hili had not suffered any intense physical or mental suffering.

As to his claim that he had been deprived of enjoyment of his property when his pension was halved, the court referred to case law of the European Court of Human Rights which had found that social security benefits did not of themselves create any right to acquire property. A partial forfeiture of a pension in terms of law as a result of serious criminal misconduct did not constitute a violation of property rights, Mr Justice McKeon ruled.

The court also dismissed Mr Hili’s claim that he was being punished twice for the same offence, as he had served his prison sentence but was also being deprived of his pension.