A man facing a five-year prison term over drug-trafficking has today filed a fresh application for bail, after a court on Thursday declared that his right to a fair trial had been breached.

A request for bail, pending appeal proceedings, had been turned down last August.

Kidney transplant patient Christopher Bartolo, the 36-year old Gozitan, was last April condemned to a five-year jail term and a €15,000 fine after pleading guilty to having trafficked 1.5kg of cannabis.

The First Hall, Civil Court in its Constitutional Jurisdiction, presided over by Madam Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima, held on Thursday that the accused deserved to find himself back to where he was before pleading guilty, and that he should also have the chance to withdraw his admission.

The accused’s fundamental right was deemed to have been breached when he was denied legal assistance during two police interrogations, only allowed to consult a lawyer before the first interrogation – which took place upon his return from a 6-hour dialysis session in hospital.

On Friday, the man’s defence team filed a fresh application before the Criminal Court of Appeal in its Superior Jurisdiction, claiming that retaining the accused in custody after Thursday’s pronouncement would be of significant prejudice to him and could possibly impinge upon his right to a fair hearing.

Should there eventually be a variation or revocation of the judgment declaring his conviction upon appeal, there would be no effective remedy for the time unjustly spent behind bars.

The application further pointed out that the accused’s ‘precarious state of health’ was an additional ground on which to request bail.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia signed the application.