The former head of the defunct Bical Bank yesterday filed a judicial protest claiming breach of human rights after about 20 cases he is involved in and being heard by different judges were transferred to the same court.

Cecil Pace said all his property and assests had been frozen for the past 40 years following the collapse of the bank and the transfer of cases had thrown a spanner in the works, especially because the cases have been underway for about 25 years.

The protest was filed against Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Attorney General Peter Grech.

All the cases are against the controllers who were appointed to dispose of the failed bank’s assets and recover as much money as possible. Mr Pace claims they failed to do so correctly.

Only recently, all the parties involved, in line with an order issued by the First Hall of the Civil Court, had agreed to make an extra effort to bring the proceedings to a close. In fact, between October and this month a number of hearings were held. This allowed for the remaining evidence and information to be presented in all the cases so that judgments could be handed down, in the hope that the right to a fair hearing coud be upheld, Mr Pace said.

However, last June, outgoing Chief Justce Vincent De Gaetano transferred all the cases before different judges to Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo. This unprecedented decision was taken without a valid reason at law and, although there was nothing wrong with the Chief Justice being able to transfer cases, there should be serious reasons for doing so, Mr Pace insisted in the protest.

Furthermore, he argued, the article of law, Rules of Court, which conferred the power to move such cases around went against the right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time.

Mr Pace is asking the court to transfer the cases back to the original judges and to declare the law, Rules of Court, discriminatory.

Lawyers Tonio Azzopardi and Malcolm Pace signed the protest.