Right to fair hearing found violated

The Constitutional Court yesterday upheld a judgment of the First Hall of the Civil Court and ruled that Raymond Caruana's fundamental human right to a fair hearing had been violated due to procedural unfairness before the Court of Criminal Appeal.

The appellate court, presided by Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano, Mr Justice Joseph D. Camilleri and Mr Justice Joseph A. Filletti dismissed the appeal lodged by the Attorney General from the decision of the First Hall of the Civil Court.

In yesterday's judgment the Constitutional Court noted that in September last year, Caruana had been found guilty by the Magistrates Court of receiving stolen goods, evading duty and excise.

He was condemned to pay Lm41,125 and was given a two-year jail term suspended for four years.

Both Caruana and the Attorney General appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

While Caruana asked for the court to change the part of the sentence where he was found guilty, the Attorney General requested that the court should also confiscate the car, valued at Lm17,500.

Both appeals were scheduled to be heard on December 16 but the accused failed to turn up on time and the court decreed that his appeal was to be deemed abandoned.

It upheld the Attorney General's appeal.

Caruana appeared before the Court of Criminal Appeal some 15 minutes after the court made its pronouncement, and requested his appeal to be appointed and heard.

But the Court of Criminal Appeal turned this down on December 19.

He then filed a constitutional case and the First Hall of the Civil Court ruled, on October 8, that the Court of Criminal Appeal was wrong when it decided that the appeal had been abandoned without waiting for the lapse of four days, in accordance with law, during which time one could file an application to resuscitate an application that had been deemed abandoned.

Hence, the First Hall of the Civil Court upheld Caruana's case and ordered the case to be sent back to the Court of Criminal Appeal so that the case would be decided.

In yesterday's judgment the Constitutional Court declared that the facts giving rise to this case were unique, and were not contested by the parties.

The Constitutional Court found that the problem in this case had arisen as the Court of Criminal Appeal had not given sufficient weight to the fact that it was dealing with one case.

Therefore, despite the fact that two appeals from the Magistrates Court decision had been filed, only one judgment had to be given on the two appeals.

As a result of its actions, the Court of Criminal Appeal had, by deciding upon the appeal filed by the Attorney General, deprived Caruana of the possibility of having his appeal re-appointed for hearing.

The principal reason why the Court of Criminal Appeal had dismissed Caruana's request for a re-appointment of the case was presicely because that Court had already delivered an irrevocable decision on the merits of the case.

A procedural unfairness had therefore taken place and this constituted a violation of Caruana's right to a fair hearing.

As a result the Constitutional Court declared that the judgment of the First Hall of the Civil Court, in its constitutional jurisdiction, was correct and the judgment was confirmed.

The Court ordered a copy of this judgment to be served upon the Registrar of the Criminal Court for the necessary action to be taken.