Procedural law governing court cases is discriminating against the accused, a man in custody pending drug trafficking charges has claimed.

In an application signed by lawyers Franco Debono and Charmaine Cherrett, Magistrate Marseann Farrugia was requested to send this claim to the Constitutional Court.

Dr Debono said that if the court presided cases where the punishment for the alleged offence did not exceed six months imprisonment, such cases had to be heard once every 15 days.

However, there where instances when the court obtained the consent of the Attorney General and the accused to determine cases where the offence carried a punishment not exceeding 10 years imprisonment and there was no time limit for the case to be heard.

In such cases, the accused could be left in prison without bail for months on end waiting for the next sitting.

In such cases the accused did not have the right to appeal when a magistrate denies a request for bail, Dr Debono said.

This situation was discriminatory and led to an unfair trial and ultimately a breach of human rights, Dr Debono said.

A decision is pending.