A claim by a man who says his human rights were breached because he had no access to a lawyer when he was arrested will be studied by the Constitutional Court.

Martin Dimech, 50, of Żejtun, raised the issue last month during preliminary pleas. His lawyers, Franco Debono and Josè Herrera, quoted European case law on the matter and Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano, sitting in the Criminal Court, decreed yesterday that Mr Dimech had an “arguable case” and so referred the matter to the Constitutional Court. Mr Dimech had argued that because he had no access to a lawyer at the time of his arrest, this was tantamount to a breach of his human rights.

He is facing a trial by jury accused of trafficking just under a kilo of heroin in March 2009. He was allegedly found hiding the large amount of the drug, which turned out to be about 35 per cent pure, behind refrigerators inside a garage. The drug, worth more than €45,500, were allegedly kept by the accused for another person in return for €11,600.

Two months ago, a man serving a nine-year jail term on drug-related charges, filed a constitutional application asking for the sentence to be revoked for the same reason.

To date, two trials by jury were postponed after lawyers instituted constitutional proceedings related to this issue.