A court ruled that a 28-year-old man was arrested illegally even though he had appealed a court decision finding him guilty of not paying maintenance.

Franco Scicluna had been convicted of not paying maintenance to his wife over two different periods and was ordered to serve one week in prison for each instance.

He appealed the decision but was arrested at his workplace at Mater Dei Hospital and told that he had a one-week jail term to serve.

He informed the police that he had appealed the decision taken by the courts. The police, however, failed to trace the appeal and told him that he had only appealed one of the two jail terms.

The court was urgently opened on Saturday evening where lawyers José Herrera and Veronique Dalli appeared for Mr Scicluna claiming illegal arrest.

Magistrate Miriam Hayman ruled that the arrest was illegal and Mr Scicluna was released.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.