A Constitutional Court has awarded two men €700 each in compensation after hearing how they waited 23 years for their criminal case over the possession of a stolen cheque to be decided.
The court found that their right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time had been breached, despite finding both the prosecution and the two defendants responsible for the excessive delays.
Raymond Bonnici, 55, of Marsa and Ronald Urry, 50, of Paola, stood charged with possession of a cheque belonging to Antonia Dalli for approximately €217.45 (Lm93.35).
A major part of the proceedings consisted of postponements for court decisions and then for the final judgement. The court heard that some sittings were held five years apart.
The men were arraigned in December 1990 and were acquitted of the charges in November 2013, with Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras ruling that the charges had been time barred by some 15 years.
The men took their complaint about excessive delays to the Constitutional Court, presided over by Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri and judges Giannino Caruana Demajo and Noel Cuschieri.
They argued that their human rights had been breached because of the massive delay and that a large part of the delay stemmed from waiting for a judgment.
The Constitutional Court upheld their complaint although, while reprimanding the prosecution for its part in the delay, it also placed some of the blame on the defendants. They had failed to appear in court on several occasions and on others appeared without their lawyers, leading to several deferments.
In its decision, the Constitutional Court noted that between June 1992 and June 2000, the court held no less than 50 sittings, during which practically nothing was heard. On one occasion, the sitting was postponed because the court had no messenger to deliver the files.
Moreover, between July 2000 and December 2009, the court called the case 48 times but nothing happened because the defendants or the prosecuting officer failed to appear. More sittings were held until 2013, when the case was transferred to another magistrate, finally being decided in November that year.
The Constitutional Court said that although the men had contributed to the breach of their own right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time, the prosecution and the court were also to blame for failing to take the necessary measures to ensure that this basic human right was respected.
It compensated the two men €700 as moral damages for the uncertainty, frustration and anxiety they had to endure during this 23-year wait with a criminal case hanging over their head.
Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Angie Muscat represented the men.
Mr Urry is facing separate criminal proceedings over the 2013 murder of Matthew Zahra, a taxi driver found buried in a field in Qajjenza, Birzebbuġa, close to the bodies of criminal Mario Camilleri, or l-Imnieħru, and his son Mario.