A 71-year-old man suffering from two cancers has requested the President of the Republic to pardon him from a prison term after he was jailed last month for a crime he committed 42 years ago.

Edward Pavia was imprisoned for 18 months last July because he was unable to pay a €1 million fine that was handed with his conviction in 1998.

The accused argues he should have been made to serve time for that fine decades ago. Instead, he insists, he was left hanging for all these years, only to be jailed this year, during one of his most vulnerable periods of his life, as he grapples with prostate and skin cancer.

He is arguing the “disproportionate” delay makes his imprisonment unjust and inhumane, and through his lawyer José Herrera he filed a petition to the President to ask for a presidential pardon.

On Friday, Herrera also filed a constitutional case arguing Pavia’s imprisonment was degrading and inhumane due to unnecessary delays in implementing the criminal court judgment.

It’s unbelievably unfair. I accept that I should pay for my crime, of course, but I should have served time decades ago, not now- Edward Pavia

He will also ask court to order his release from prison until the case is decided.

Times of Malta met with Pavia and his family in prison on Saturday.

“It’s unbelievably unfair. I accept that I should pay for my crime, of course, but I should have served time decades ago, not now,” he said.

“Why was I left hanging all these years? Why was I left in constant fear and anticipation that I’d be taken away from my family? Believe me, that was a punishment in itself – a way worse punishment had I been jailed and got it over and done with back then.”

A long legal labyrinth

Pavia’s case dates back more than four decades when he was just 28.

In 1982 he had attempted to import contraband alcohol and was among those charged with the crime a year later.

The criminal case dragged on for 12 years and in 1995 he was found guilty. An appeals court confirmed that judgment in 1998 and he was handed a suspended sentence and a fine equivalent to €939,739.

He then filed a constitutional case claiming the long court case breached his human rights. Although it did not quash the criminal judgment, the court ruled there were unnecessary delays and awarded him €5,000 compensation in 2016.

Pavia then took his case to Strasbourg’s European Court of Human Rights which did not only confirm the unnecessary delays in the criminal case but also noted delays in the constitutional court case.

And in 2020 the European Court of Human Rights ruled he should be compensated with a further €21,000.

Herrera is arguing nothing prevented the authorities from enforcing the criminal judgment in 1998 and Pavia should have been made to serve time for his fine then.

That would have saved him another 25 years of unnecessary worries.

Even if the authorities wanted to wait for the constitutional court judgment, there was nothing keeping them from putting Pavia in jail in 2016.

“Instead, they did nothing since 2016 and came for me now,” Pavia said.

Police came for him at home

He said police picked him up from home late one night in July, took him to the Floriana headquarters lockup and then straight to prison the day after.

When he saw the police outside his door he suspected what it was for but could not believe it was really happening, all those years later.

His partner of 35 years, Joanne, met him in the early 1990s, when he was already accused of the crime.

She recalled the shock of seeing him being taken away by the police in July and admitted she is struggling to get used to life without him.

“For 35 years we did everything together. We grew up together and I don’t know what to do without him,” she said.

“I feel like a fish out of the water. I’m nothing without him. For me, it’s like the world has stopped.”

‘Never seen anything like it’

His lawyer José Herrera said there were unjust delays at every stage of the case – in the criminal case, in the constitutional case and now even in the implementation of the sentence – which amounts to inhumane and degrading treatment.

“In all my experience as a criminal lawyer I never saw a case which has dragged on for so long,” he said.

“It is unacceptable and I strongly feel that in such instances the state should intervene – via the President – to remedy the injustice on humanitarian grounds.”

Two cancers

Pavia’s struggle turned even more challenging when he was diagnosed with two cancers, for which he is receiving treatment.

While he was imprisoned last month, he even had to be taken to hospital for surgery to treat his skin cancer.

Pavia also petitioned the prison remissions board to consider decreasing his sentence on humanitarian grounds.

His family told Times of Malta they also contacted Justice Minister Jonathan Attard about the case, who was “very understanding and empathetic”.