I am not surprised at all that the European Commission has come to the conclusion it did (Malta Now On Trial Over Its Slow Justice System, May 6; When Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied, May 14). We shareholders of the National Bank of Malta have been awaiting justice since the obscene government takeover of the bank on December 13, 1973.

I, as a long-suffering shareholder, need not recall again the dramatic circumstances of the takeover and the effects it had on shareholders, big or small, who had all their life’s savings taken away from them overnight under duress. Over these 40 years, some shareholders have died penniless. During their lives they were literally given financial handouts by family and friends to enable them to buy their daily bread.

The shareholders of the National Bank have three cases pending in our courts of justice, one civil and two constitutional, and they were promised a sentence to be delivered on all three cases in November 2010. From then on the sentences were put off or postponed several times such as from April 10, 2013, when we were told that the judge was unwell, to May 8, 2013.

Once again, on that day no sentence was delivered, with no reason being given to us.

The shareholders’ next appointment with the whims of justice is supposed to be this September.

Judges are appointed by the Government and paid for by taxpayers to deliver just sentences within a reasonable time. What befell us shareholders of the National Bank is a mockery of justice and I personally feel utterly ridiculed and let down, particularly given that the European Commission says that “judicial reform must be made a priority”.