Court finds 13-year-long asset freeze breached rights
Businessmen were charged with corruption-related offences and money-laundering
A court has ruled that the rights of two men who were subjected to a blank asset freeze since 2013 were violated.
Businessmen Francis Portelli and Anthony Cassar were charged with corruption-related offences and money-laundering 13 years ago.
The freezing order placed on them remained in place ever since, without any review about its proportionality being carried out or any effective ways for them to challenge it up until 2025, when new legal amendments were introduced.
Portelli and Cassar argued that the freezing order had been in force for over a decade without the prosecution ever carrying out any analysis of the amount of alleged criminal proceeds, and without the court ever verifying the extent of the property being frozen.
They argued that this violated their rights to enjoyment of property as well as their rights to a fair hearing.
The court found that while the freezing order had been issued lawfully and for a legitimate aim, namely preserving the assets pending the outcome of the criminal case, the continued freeze without any review or effective remedy was disproportionate.
Judge Lawrence Mintoff noted that an earlier constitutional court judgment had already found that there had been “unjustified, unreasonable delay” by the prosecution in those same criminal proceedings, and said that this delay had further aggravated the violation identified in the present case.
The court declined to revoke or vary the freezing order itself, and instead directed that a copy of the judgment be sent to the criminal court dealing with the case.
Portelli and Cassar were awarded moral damages of €300 per year of violation to each applicant, totalling €7,200, to be paid jointly by the attorney general and the state advocate within one month.