A court decision on Tuesday granting Patrick Spiteri bail was reaffirmed by the Criminal Court on Wednesday, but the disbarred lawyer remains behind bars since his arrest under separate proceedings still stands.
In pleas during the appeal proceedings filed by the AG against a decree delivered two days ago by magistrate Josette Demicoli, granting Mr Spiteri bail, lawyer Stefano Filletti lambasted the “dangerous game” played by the prosecution.
He said his client, extradited from the UK in May to face criminal proceedings in Malta over misappropriation and fraud totalling some €7.4 million, had found himself in the midst of an entangled web of court cases scattered before four magistrates.
This resulted in a seemingly interminable series of bail requests filed before the different Magistrates’ Courts, followed by appeals to the Criminal Court presided over by different members of the judiciary.
“This is a dangerous game which the Attorney General is playing,” Dr Filletti argued before Madam Justice Edwina Grima, who was presiding over an appeal from the bail decree delivered two days ago by magistrate Demicoli.
Stressing that it was wrong to give the impression of forum shopping or to attempt to reduce the matter to a lottery, Dr Filletti pointed out that the matter could have easily been resolved through one uniform bail decree. “A lottery is the antithesis of justice,” Dr Filletti emphasised.
Some hours later, Madam Justice Grima decreed from chambers that the prosecution should not have attempted to put forward its case once it had already received direction in this regard by the same court, although presided by a different judge.
“Once this Court, although in separate proceedings, had decided that the granting of bail under strict conditions, identical to those which the Attorney General was seeking to sweep aside today, was justified, then this Court could not go against such a decision,” she declared, clearly referring to a decree delivered last week by Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi.
On that occasion, bail.
Mr Justice Mizzi had declared that in view of Dr Spiteri’s medical condition, his situation was to be “assessed attentively so that he might be held in an environment which would minimise the negative effects of his illness”.
Dr Spiteri, a victim of Behcet’s syndrome, as certified by medical documents, has allegedly been experiencing a worsening of conditions throughout his stay at the Corradino Correctional Facility.
Alongside the decree delivered by Madam Justice Grima, rejecting the AG’s appeal, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera also upheld Mr Spiteri’s request for bail.
Among the stringent conditions laid down by the court, Magistrate Scerri Herrera imposed a curfew between 8pm and 8am as well as an obligation to sign the bail book twice daily at the local police station and to deposit all travel documents in court.
The court further ordered Mr Spiteri to deposit a €20,000 pledge, or should the object pledged be deemed unsuitable by the Court, to deposit the sum of €20,000 in Court.
The former lawyer was also barred from approaching the coastline within a distance of 100 metres and from boarding any sea craft whatsoever or absconding from the islands in any manner.
Yet in spite of today’s pronouncements, Mr Spiteri remains behind bars, since his arrest under separate proceedings still stands. Lawyer Stefano Filletti is defence counsel.