A man who is appealing a judgement which found him guilty of carrying out a hold-up on a 70-year-old man today filed a Constitutional application claiming breach of human rights.

Aaron Cassar and Noel Frendo were, in 2012 sentenced to eight years in jail and fined €2,000 each after they were found guilty of carrying out the hold-up. They filed an appeal, which is still pending.

Mr Cassar today filed a Constitutional application pointing out that he had been assisted by a legal aid lawyer. He claimed that only 10 lawyers were assigned to provide legal aid and cases were distributed according to who was next on the shift.

This, he said, was against his right because he should be given a choice or lawyers should at least lawyer be assigned according to their specialisation.

Mr Cassar claimed that in the Criminal Court there was just one legal aid lawyer to assist people standing trial by jury.

He claimed that he was not assisted by a lawyer during his investigation and was denied access to the file concerning his case.

He asked the court to declare a breach of human rights give him effective remedy.
Lawyers Franco Debono and Michaela Spiteri signed the application.