The brother of a Gozitan warden stabbed to death 10 years ago insists the case of her brutal murder is closed and to him a recent human rights case filed by one of her convicted killers is baseless.

Ġanni Attard, 64, known as Il-Muħa, on Thursday filed a court application claiming breach of human rights arguing he had not been given access to a lawyer prior to police interrogation when he incriminated himself.

He was jailed for life last year after jurors found him guilty of involvement in the murder of 47-year-old Fortunata Spiteri. In a constitutional application, Mr Attard asked the court to declare that his trial had been unfair because he did not have access to a lawyer prior to police investigation.

Ms Spiteri’s brother, Charlie Galea, says Mr Attard has no case because the police statement was not the only evidence against him.

“For us, her relatives, the case is closed. I think he (Mr Attard) has no basis in his case. I can’t say I’m upset by the fact that he filed the case but, the way I see it, he’s trying to clutch at straws,” he said. Another Gozitan man, Benny Attard, who was also convicted of the murder, had testified against Ġanni Attard and there was other corroborating evidence, Mr Galea said.

“It’s not as though a judge just decided he (Ġanni Attard) was guilty. The verdict was handed down by nine jurors who found that the evidence, all together, was enough to convict him,” Mr Galea said.

He pointed out that, on handing down judgment, Mr Justice Michael Mallia said Ġanni Attard had spent his life “challenging authority” and took into consideration a crime in which he had caused injuries to his father that resulted in his death.

“When my sister died, I swore on her grave that I would do all I can to bring her murderers to justice,” said Mr Galea, one of her nine siblings.

Ms Spiteri was slain on a dark road which leads to Għarb on August 10, 2001. Ġanni Attard never admitted to the crime but in his statement to the police he confirmed that he was on the scene at the time of the murder.

He was the second person to stand trial after Benny Attard was jailed for 30 years two years ago after admitting his involvement in the crime.

Benny Attard testified he held the woman as Ġanni Attard stabbed her and had been promised about €11,650 for helping out.

Ġanni Attard filed his constitutional application following a landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court that a suspect’s human rights had been violated when the police took his statement without giving him access to a lawyer. A recent amendment to the law now allows suspects to speak to their lawyers before questioning.

Magistrate Marseann Farrugia has applied the judgment in a drug trafficking case, acquitting the accused on grounds that the only evidence against him was his police statement that was taken although he had not consulted a lawyer.