A man, escorted to jail on Tuesday over a €200,000 civil debt owed to his father, was released from Corradino on Thursday after a civil court upheld his lawyers’ request to suspend the enforcement of the infamous warrant which had resulted in his indefinite imprisonment. 

Noel Gafà, the 41-year-old technician with no brushes with the law, was escorted to Corradino Correctional Facility by court marshals who were simply executing a warrant issued under the order of the First Hall, Civil Court upon the request of Gafà’s father. 

That move brought about a series of legal moves by Gafà’s lawyers and caused quite some stir both inside and outside the law courts, with many members of the profession questioning how such rarely-used warrant in factum could have been resuscitated. 

On Wednesday evening, a Magistrates’ Court turned down an application by Gafà’s lawyers in one of three legal measures attempted to challenge that warrant. 

They filed an Habeas Corpus application arguing that Gafà’s arrest was illegal since there was no law that provided for arrest and imprisonment of a person over his failure or inability to pay a civil debt. 

They called for his immediate release from custody, also highlighting the fact that the situation breached the man’s fundamental rights which expressly prohibited such unlawful detention. 

At around 8pm and after lengthy deliberation, duty Magistrate Noel Bartolo delivered a decree whereby he turned down the defence’s request observing that Gafà was not being detained illegally since he was being held in custody on the basis of an order handed down by the civil court. 

Gafà, distraught but resigned to his fate of facing an indefinite term behind bars for as long as his father continued to pay for his upkeep in jail, was led away by prison guards. 

However, on Thursday morning, matters took a positive turn for Gafà after his lawyers made one last desperate bid to get him out of jail pending the ongoing civil and constitutional proceedings. 

They filed a fresh application before the same civil court which had issued the warrant in the first place, informing the judge about the outcome of Wednesday’s Habeas Corpus procedure. 

Given that they had filed a previous request to revoke the warrant but that request was still pending a decision, the same court was requested to suspend the enforcement of the warrant until a decision on whether to revoke it or not was reached. 

The court upheld that request and lifted the warrant, allowing Gafà to regain his personal freedom. 

At a future date, the court will hear submissions by the parties and subsequently decide whether to revoke the warrant which Gafà’s lawyers claim is not valid according to law. 

Ryan Falzon, Timothy Bartolo and Jonathan Thompson are assisting Gafà.