A man who stands charged with making five phone bomb hoaxes to the law courts has been ordered to give a 'voice sample' for comparison testing.

Richard Cuschieri, 42 from Hamrun, had been charged with having threatened to blow up the courts on five days he was due to appear there in 2012, over a pending fraud case.

During his arraignment, in June that year, he was also charged with lodging false reports to the police and causing fear of violence. He pleaded not guilty. 

Police officers had told the court that the calls were made from his mobile phone and from telephone booths. 

In September 2012 the prosecution asked the court to order Mr Cuschieri to give a voice sample so that a court expert could compare it with the recorded telephone calls.  The court upheld the request but Mr Cuschieri filed a court application in the First Hall of the Civil Court, in its constitutional jurisdiction, claiming that this would breach his right to a fair hearing.

He argued that, by forcing him to give a voice sample, the court was leading him to incriminate himself. He also argued that the law did not specifically allow the courts to order that a voice sample be taken. The law, for example, mentioned that the courts could order a DNA sample but there was no mention of voice.
The Attorney General objected and noted that the law allowed a magistrate a degree of flexibility to order the collection of any evidence needed to complete a case. This included voice recordings.

Madam Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima, in the First Hall, noted today that a voice recording was less invasive than other medical tests. She agreed that the courts had the authority to order such recordings and this was not in breach of the right to a fair hearing. 

Moreover, the voice sample would be taken with legal safeguards in place, under the court's watch and by an independent expert.

She turned down Mr Cuschieri's application.