Daniel Holmes is serving a 10-and-a-half year jail term. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

The father of Welsh prisoner Daniel Holmes has petitioned the European Commission to investigate “systemic institutional discrimination” by the Maltese judicial system on the basis of nationality.

In a written submission, Mel Holmes said the specific and repeated intervention of the Attorney General in his son’s case with the express purpose of obtaining the most severe sentence was evidence of such discrimination.

Daniel Holmes was jailed for 10 and a half years and fined €23,000 fine in 2011 for cannabis offences.

In his submission to the European Commission, his father listed 14 cases in which he said Maltese individuals were given more lenient sentences for similar or more serious crimes.

These included repeat offender Doreen Bugeja who, this year, was handed a three and a half year jail sentence and fined €1,500 for trafficking heroin.

Mr Holmes pleaded guilty on legal advice to the importation, cultivation, possession and trafficking of just over a kilo of cannabis in the hope of receiving a reduced sentence.

He maintains that he wanted to plead guilty only to possession and cultivation of cannabis for personal use but was not allowed to split the charges.

His co-accused and fellow Briton, Barry Lee, committed suicide in prison while awaiting trial.

Mr Holmes’s father points out in his submission to Brussels that the Attorney General moved the case from the inferior to the superior court in 2011, which meant his son faced a longer sentence. This was done despite the fact that the case had been heard in the inferior court in the five previous years and no new evidence had come to light, he notes.

Contacted yesterday, Mr Holmes’s father said he did not expect a reply from the European Commission until after the New Year celebrations.

While the Commission cannot overturn the judgment, if it concludes there are grounds to take action, it can enter into negotiations with Malta on how to iron out the problems in the judicial system that lead to discrimination against foreigners.

“If might be too late for Daniel but it might stop the same thing happening to someone else,” the father said.

Mr Holmes has become a cause celebre for drug law reform campaigners who believe his sentence was too harsh and disproportionate to the crime.

The Welshman has always maintained that the cannabis found at his flat was for the exclusive use of himself and his co-accused.

In the five years between his arrest and the judgment, he met his future wife, had a child, held down a job and generally turned his life around.

Mr Holmes had his conviction upheld by the court of appeal in October.

The family is now considering taking the case to the Constitutional Court and, ultimately, the European Court of Human Rights.