A man, who five years ago was cleared of trying to kill his former employee in 2004, was awarded €3,000 in compensation after a court found that his rights for a trial within a reasonable time had been breached.
Anton Camilleri filed a case, in the First Hall of the Civil Court in its constitutional jurisdiction, against the Attorney General claiming a breach of his rights.
Mr Justice Joseph R Micallef noted that, on May 9, 2004, there has been an incident between Mr Camilleri and his former employee Saviour Mangion and Mr Mangion's wife. The incident involved a shooting. The following day Mr Camilleri was charged with attempted murder.
The case was deferred several times for various reasons. Eight of these deferments took place because a court expert tasked with testing gunshot residue kept informing the court that the testing equipment was out of order and a replacement had been ordered.
Besides, the judge noted, it also turned out that the expert had not been given samples lifted from Mr Camilleri's clothes to compare with the firearm's residue.
The Attorney General then found that there were enough reasons for Mr Camilleri's indictment and sent his case to trial. Mr Camilleri chose not to be tried by a jury, opting for a trial by the bench.
During the trial the presiding judge heard how the two men got into an argument sparked off by a disagreement over the sale of a garage by Mr Camilleri to Mr Mangion and over which the two had already signed a promise of sale.
Mr Mangion had called Mr Camilleri at 7am on Sunday, which also happened to be Mother's Day and later went to his house. An argument erupted outside Mr Camilleri's house.
While Mr Mangion and his wife, Giovanna, testified that Mr Camilleri ran to his car to get a small triangular pouch from which he produced a pistol, the accused denied it flatly, insisting he had simply gone to the car to fetch his keys to get back into the house.
The versions of events as recounted by Mr Mangion and his wife differed because, while the latter claimed Mr Camilleri had actually fired a shot at her husband, Mr Mangion could not recall hearing the shot or seeing any smoke coming out of the gun, as his wife had testified.
On May 12, 2010, Mr Camilleri was acquitted after the court found that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
In November that year he filed the constitutional application claiming a breach of his rights. He argued that the case took long and that he should have never been charged in the first place, as proven by his acquittal.
Mr Justice Micallef found that the acquittal did not mean there should have been no case. He, however, found that he suffered a breach of his right to a fair hearing due to delays.