An Italian who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking is claiming discrimination because the Attorney General is pushing for a jail term 14 times longer than that received by a Maltese man for the same crime.

Claudio Porsenna, 36, had averted a jury trial in 2003 by pleading guilty to conspiring to traffic 2.5 kg of cannabis.

However, an attempt at plea bargaining then failed because the Attorney General requested a seven-year jail term, 14 times above that received by his co-accused, his lawyers Steve Tonna Lowell and Joe Giglio told a court yesterday.

This request, they argued before Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano, amounted to discrimination against the Italian.

The prosecution, however, argued that the other man received a lesser sentence because he had collaborated with the police.

On May 3, 2003, this man, whose name cannot be published by court order, was arrested in relation to drugs offences and made a statement to police in which he named Mr Porsenna as being involved.

The Maltese man then pleaded guilty in court to trafficking two kilogrammes of cannabis and was jailed for a year.

On appeal, his prison term was reduced to six months.

Dr Tonna Lowell said his client had handled 2.5 kg of cannabis while this man had handled two kilos, but this small difference did not merit such a discrepancy in sentence, he argued.

Court ‘discrimination’

He said the seven years and €14,000 fine requested by the Attorney General was “excessive” and “discriminatory”.

The lawyer argued that even the minimum jail term the court could impose on his client for this offence – four years’ imprisonment – was eight times that imposed on the other man.

“Why this discrimination? It is difficult to understand it let alone explain it,” he told the court in his submissions on punishment. Prosecutor Nadine Sant said the man the prosecution was referring to had benefited from a reduction in his sentence because he had collaborated with police and had given them names of other people involved in drug trafficking.

On the other hand, she said, Mr Porsenna had not collaborated with the police and had not given them any information.

Mr Justice Quintano put off the case for judgment tomorrow.