A criminal appeal judgment involving Christopher Bartolo, a kidney transplant patient sentenced to a five-year jail term for drug trafficking, has been halted in view of pending constitutional proceedings. The judgement had been due next month. 

The decision was taken by the First Hall, Civil Court, in its constitutional jurisdiction.

Mr Justice Toni Abela, observed that the granting of such an interim measure rested on a prima facie breach of rights and irremediable harm suffered by the applicant.

He observed that interim measures were mostly reserved to cases where the applicant faced deportation and consequent life-threatening circumstances, or where the outcome of a court decision would result in the removal of a child or parent from a country.

However, owing to the particular circumstances of this case, the request to suspend delivery of final judgment merited being upheld.  

The decision was taken after Bartolo’s lawyers filed fresh constitutional proceedings arguing that a previous judgment by the Constitutional Court had confirmed a breach of rights claim by Bartolo but had effectively denied him the possibility of being placed in the same state he had been before pleading guilty in the criminal proceedings.

Moreover, it was not in line with the spirit of the law to discriminate between those who were tried before the Drugs Court, since the Drug Dependence (Treatment Not Imprisonment) Act did not distinguish between persons tried before a magistrates’ court or those facing proceedings before the Criminal Court.

It was only the amount of drugs involved that determined whether the accused was to benefit from having his case heard by the Drugs Court, the lawyers argued.

The laboratory where the drugs seized had been analyzed, was not accredited according to European standards and this further constituted a breach of Bartolo’s right to a fair hearing, his lawyers claimed.

Until those issues are settled in these separate constitutional proceedings, the criminal appeal judgment is to be suspended.

In 2018, Bartolo had been temporarily released from prison, pending appeal proceedings, following a recommendation by the Cabinet to the President, in view of his medical condition.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia are assisting Bartolo.