Malta breached the human rights of a Lithuanian who spent 22 months in prison without trial because he could not afford bail, the European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday.

The State was found guilty of breaching Tomas Mikalauskas’s right to have the lawfulness of his imprisonment decided speedily.

It was also guilty of not bringing the accused to trial within a reasonable time or to release him pending trial.

Mr Mikalauskas was detained in Malta on charges of possessing and trafficking 15kg of cannabis in September 2009.

He is one of six people charged to date in connection with a record cannabis haul estimated to be worth some €1.5 million.

Following his arrest he was repeatedly remanded in custody over a period of 10 months, after which he was granted bail subject to high financial guarantees.

Concerns have been raised about the high volume of pre-trial detainees

As he was unable to pay, he remained in pre-trial detention for another 12 months until he was eventually released in July 2011 when the guarantees were reduced.

Mr Mikalauskas currently lives in Qawra and the criminal proceedings are still pending against him. He is pleading not guilty.

He complained under Article 5:3 and 5:4 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

His complaints were about the excessive length of his detention on remand and his inability to effectively contest the lawfulness of his detention on account of the repeated refusals to grant him bail and the high financial guarantees once bail was eventually granted. The court ruled in his favour on these counts. Malta was ordered to pay him €4,000 in damages and €1,000 in costs.

Mr Mikalauskas also complained under Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment), but the court found there was no violation on this count.

He had alleged that the conditions of his detention were inhuman and degrading given the recurring headaches he suffers from, and that the medical care provided to him in prison was inadequate. The judgement is not final. Both parties have three months to request the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court.

In a report published last October, Fair Trials International noted that Malta was the worst European country, per capita, in terms of violating Article 5 of the European human rights convention – the right to liberty.

Between April 2007 and June 2012, Malta was held in violation of Article 5 in three decided cases. The fair trials advocacy group said: “Concerns have also been raised about the high volume of pre-trial detainees in relation to the overall numbers of inmates in prisons [in Malta]. Several reports highlighted the discriminatory treatment of foreign nationals, who are rarely granted release pending trial.”

On its website the US State Department warns “foreign nationals can expect to be denied bail while a court case is ongoing, which can result in lengthy periods of pre-trial detention ranging from several months to several years”.

But it’s not just foreign nationals at risk of lengthy pre-trial detention – last April the Constitutional Court ruled that Jonathan Attard should be released on bail without paying a deposit after four years in preventative custody.

Mr Attard was awaiting trial for conspiracy to import cocaine. He was granted bail for the first time in 2009 but could not afford the deposit.