A man held behind bars after being sentenced to a five-year prison term for drug trafficking was handed a lifeline by a court today when it found a breach of his right to a fair hearing and gave him the chance to change his admission of guilt.

Christopher Bartolo, 36 from Fontana, last April was condemned to a five-year jail term and a €15,000 fine by the criminal court after pleading guilty to having trafficked 1.5kg of cannabis.

A request for bail, pending appeal, especially in view of his particularly fragile health, was turned down by a superior court last August.

However, today, the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional Jurisdictiondeclared that the man’s fundamental right to a fair trial had been breached when he was denied access to a lawyer during police interrogation.

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Delving into the circumstances of his arrest, the court stated that it was ‘terribly concerned’ by the fact that the police had not kept any records as to whether the man - a kidney transplant patient - had been given food and drink before interrogating him upon his return from hospital following a 6-hour dialysis session.

At the time, Mr Bartolo was particularly vulnerable, feeling exhausted, hungry and nauseous. Yet upon his return home, he was met by some six police officers who submitted him to questioning, searched his residence and then accompanied him to the police station after allegedly discovering some 167g of cannabis resin at his home.

During a second interrogation, the man had given in to the ‘direct and persistent questioning’ and had admitted to having trafficked drugs.

The court, presided over by Madam Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima, observed that Mr Bartolo had only been allowed to consult a lawyer before the first interrogation. No lawyer was actually present during both interrogations.

Although at the time, this right was not yet obligatory under Maltese law, later pronouncements by the European Court of Human Rights have paved the path for the introduction of this right even before the Maltese Courts.

So much so that nowadays, even under our laws, an arrested person has the right not only to consult a lawyer before interrogation but also to have legal assistance during the interrogation itself, when releasing his statement to the police.

Mr Bartolo had clearly been denied this right and consequently, his fundamental rights had been violated, the court concluded.

Such a violation called for an effective remedy which translated into the removal of his statements from the records of the case and any police testimony referring thereto. Moreover, the accused was to be granted the possibility of withdrawing or confirming his admission before the Criminal Court.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia assisted the applicant.