A man convicted for trafficking drugs and causing the death of a drug addict 20 years ago had his conviction quashed on appeal, with the case destined for re-hearing before a Magistrates’ Court.

Gozitan-born Lawrence Attard has been at the centre of criminal proceedings ever since 1999 when he was charged with the aggravated possession and trafficking of heroin, as well as with being responsible for the death of a Paola woman. The man was further charged with being a relapser.

Proceedings before the Magistrates’ Courts ultimately resulted in a conviction in 2013, whereby the accused was declared guilty of all offences and handed a six-year jail term as well as a €10,000 fine.

In his appeal application, the accused’s lawyer argued that there had been a wrong assessment of facts by the first court, as well as conflicting versions by two key witnesses.

Besides, neither the post-mortem examination nor forensic tests had established any link between the victim’s death and the drug supplied by the accused, the accused argued, further noting that the first court had wrongly seemed to attribute delays in the proceedings to the defence, when in actual fact the prosecution had ended its evidence stage in 2006.

The court of appeal, presided over by Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti, without delving into the arguments raised, brought to light another ground which spelt the nullity of the first judgment.

Indeed, the first court had indicated the wrong article of law when finding the accused guilty of involuntary homicide, “wrongly citing article 328 of the Criminal Code instead of… article 225”.

Moreover, the first court had also cited the wrong disposition of law with respect to the drug-related charges, citing the Criminal Code rather than the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, the court of appeal observed.

These two errors effectively amounted to a substantial defect which vitiated the judgment, the court declared, thereby quashing the conviction and ordering that the case be re-heard afresh on the merits.

Lawyer Edward Gatt was counsel to the appellant.