A case of a man deemed ineligible to face justice before the Drugs Court will be referred to the Constitutional Court to decide if his fundamental right for a fair hearing had been breached.

The decision was taken by a judge who upheld the request filed last week, by 43-year-old Mario Zammit of Siġġiewi.

Mr Zammit  filed an appeal after he was convicted for drug trafficking. In 2009, Mr Zammit had been sentenced to six month in prison and fined €800 for selling heroin for five-months.

However, a few months after his sentence was given, the Drug Dependence (Treatment not Imprisonment Act) came into effect.

Under this law, the man would have qualified for rehabilitation.

The man argued that the reform had been implemented in such a way as to benefit every person accused, in every stage of proceedings, except the appeal stage.

In view of this he had requested the court to convert itself into a Drugs Court so that he could be referred  to a board, which would decide whether he should be jailed or undergo drug rehabilitation.

In its decision in 2014, the Criminal Court had ruled that such benefit only applied to persons not yet convicted. But the man’s lawyers, Veronique Dalli and Dean Hili, insisted the case was still pending as it was at appeal stage.

On her part, Madam Justice Edwina Grima this morning accepted the defence's request for a Constitutional reference, asking the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction to seek guidance on the legality of the law which had enacted the drugs court.