Nationalist MP and criminal lawyer Franco Debono complained today that 'erroneous consideration' of a European Court sentence by Judge Giovanni Bonello – a former member of the European court itself – could have an impact on a case which is subject to appeal in Malta.
Dr Debono's complaint was made in a letter to The Times in reaction to an opinion piece penned by Judge Bonello.
Dr Debono points out that in his article Bailing Out Human Rights, ( http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120427/opinion/Bailing-out-human-rights.417259 ) Judge Bonello compared a recent local judgement, which ruled that a law granting the Attorney General the right to appeal bail decisions but denying the same right of appeal to the accused, constituted a breach of human rights, to another judgement, of the European Court (Stephens vs Malta). This, however, did not deal with appeals from bail decisions but with the different issue of appeals from illegal arrest claims, the MP said.
"Considering the high esteem in which Judge Bonello, who was one of the presiding judges in the Stephens case, is rightly held in legal circles, including by myself, this erroneous consideration and other factually incorrect statements based on inexistent quotes and wrong references from his own judgement, risk prejudicing the local case to which he made reference and which is still subject to appeal," Dr Debono, who was counsel in the local case, said.
"Furthermore, it is even more worrying not only that the same errors surfaced previously in a particular blog but also that the author did not take the opportunity to rectify the errors in a subsequent and related contribution entitled Bad Law? Worse Remedy ( http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120502/opinion/Bad-law-Worse-remedy.417940 )."
Dr Debono argued that contrary to what Judge Bonello stated, the Stephens case, in fact, had nothing to do with bail (Criminal Code, article 574 et seq) and nowhere was bail mentioned in the judgement. The judgement concerned illegal arrest (article 409A of the Criminal Code) a fact that is very clear from the judgement itself.
See letter in full at http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120508/letters/Legal-apples-and-turnips.418905