Court rejects request for test

A court yesterday turned down the prosecution's request to carry out tests on a drug sample after noting that it had been lifted by police as opposed to an independent expert appointed by a magistrate.

Magistrate Giovanni Grixti is presiding over the compilation of evidence against Loraine Vella, 35, of Paola, who is pleading not guilty to the possession of cocaine and heroin in circumstances denoting they were not for her personal use on November 14, 2003.

During a sitting on April 5, Superintendent Neil Harrison had exhibited a sachet suspected to contain drugs.

The sachet had been seized by the police from a woman who had been found in Ms Vella's apartment. The exhibits had then been handed over to the superintendent who held onto them until the court proceedings against the woman had been concluded.

Then, on May 5, the prosecuting officers in the case against Ms Vella asked the court to appoint a court expert to compile a report in order to establish whether the substance found on the woman was the same as a substance found in Ms Vella's apartment.

Dr Joseph Giglio, for Ms Vella, objected to this request arguing that the exhibit ought to have been lifted by experts appointed by the inquiring magistrate who held the inquiry into the drug find. It was not right that Superintendent Harrison exhibited the exhibits a year and a half after Ms Vella was charged in court.

Magistrate Grixti ruled that there was no doubt that the prosecution did not abide by the procedures.

The inquiring magistrate was not part of the police or the prosecution and the law ensured that investigations and gathering of evidence were not to be limited to police but were essentially to be carried out by independent experts appointed by the inquiring magistrate.

Once the alleged drug was found in the place where the inquiry was held, it should have never been lifted by the police, the magistrate said.