The owners of a trawler have gone to court claiming that the confiscation of their vessel breached their rights since they had not been subjected to any criminal action.
Paul Piscopo and his wife Alexandra filed a constitutional case against the Director-General of Customs and the State Advocate over the confiscation of the vessel Dimitra.
That trawler, along with 34,600 litres of gas oil, was the subject of two seizure notes issued in 2013 over alleged breach of customs regulations.
The Piscopos had contested those allegations by filing proceedings before the civil courts. Their arguments were shot down by the First Hall, Civil Court in 2017 and that decision was confirmed on appeal last year.
Meanwhile, no criminal action was taken against the vessel owners and prosecution of the crew members resulted in an acquittal.
Nonetheless, the vessel was confiscated without its owners having been found guilty of any criminal offence in that regard.
The Piscopos’ lawyers are arguing that seizure is a “temporary” measure and confiscation may only be ordered by a court of criminal jurisdiction.
The applicants had faced a similar scenario in respect of another seizure note concerning another trawler, the MFV Alexandra I, which they had also challenged.
In those proceedings the Court of Appeal reached a “diametrically opposed conclusion,” argued the applicants’ lawyers.
In that case, Paul Piscopo was criminally charged for alleged breach of customs laws and was acquitted.
The seizure note was subsequently revoked.
But with respect to the Dimitra, no criminal action was taken against Piscopo, said his lawyers, and the confiscation of the vessel was nothing but “deprivation of property” in breach of the European Convention and the Constitution.
Since confiscation was a form of punishment to be imposed after a criminal process, Piscopo’s right to a fair hearing was also breached.
The applicants thus requested the First Hall, Civil Court in its constitutional jurisdiction to declare the breach of rights and to afford a remedy including release of the vessel and liquidation of compensation accordingly.
Lawyers Jose’ Herrera and David Camilleri signed the application.