Updated 6pm

Lawyers for former chief of staff Keith Schembri protested on Tuesday that a magistrate's decision to bring forward a money laundering case could prejudice their client.

On Monday, Schembri filed a constitutional case insisting his phone should be struck off as evidence against him in a money laundering case after it was lost while in the court's possession and then found in the files of another case. This, he argued, constituted a breach of rights. 

On Tuesday, Schembri’s lawyers said they had received an email from Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech’s deputy registrar on Monday evening informing them that the next sitting in the money laundering case scheduled for November 20, had been moved to Friday.

This meant that proceedings would continue before a decision was taken by the constitutional court on whether the phone would be accepted as evidence.  By bringing the criminal case forward to Friday, the Magistrates’ Court move could result in serious prejudice for Schembri, his lawyers said. 

Schembri’s lawyers therefore called upon Mr Justice Mark Simiana, who was assigned the breach of rights case, to handle the case with a greater measure of urgency and to appoint a first hearing before Friday’s hearing before Magistrate Frendo Dimech.

The judge upheld the request and set a hearing for Thursday. He also ordered the court services agency's CEO to preserve the CCTV recordings over the past six months showing all movements in and out of the room where all case exhibits were stored. 

That was the room where Schembri’s ‘missing’ phone had allegedly been tracked down. 

Those recordings were to be kept under court seal, the lawyers said. 

Lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo signed the application.