Kidney transplant patient Chris Bartolo had every reason to smile broadly as he stood next to his partner Rachel Borg.

Both were feeling enormous relief after his five-year jail term for cannabis trafficking was struck down by the highest court.

On the way, Bartolo has lost three kidneys, spent 10 excruciating months in prison and faced 12 different judges in nine years of legal dispute. It’s not over yet, with the cannabis case now returned to pre-judgment phase and Bartolo still with his medical battle to fight.

But for now, the couple are happy.

“I will not be fully happy until the case is closed forever, but I now have a lot of hope,” Bartolo said.

“Hearing the judgment was like finally coming out of an exam you’ve been preparing for for eight years,”  Borg added.

A case of simple possession of 167 grams of cannabis had escalated to trafficking charges due to the statements Bartolo gave the police and the magistrate. 

But in a landmark judgment at the end of last month, the Constitutional Court ruled that his declaration to the inquiring magistrate confirming his earlier statements to the police – made without a lawyer present – were inadmissible in the case.

During their ordeal, Bartolo and Borg had a son and raised him together.

“There were times when I thought about how easier my life could have been had I not met Chris, but if it were not for all these challenges we have been through, my life would not have been so beautiful,” Borg said.

“I know Chris’s life is not like any other father’s life, and I will continue to fight for justice because I want our son to be with his father as much as possible.”

Bartolo’s saga goes back to 2010, when his sister Daniela died after being diagnosed with a brain tumour. 

Shortly afterwards, he started to feel unwell. He blamed his unusual pain and dizziness on the trauma of his sister passing away but did some tests anyway.

A call from hospital changed his life forever: he had double kidney failure. A series of operations started his 11-year struggle with the illness. He was 29.

His former girlfriend Sarah learned he desperately needed a kidney transplant and set out to help him find one. They took to the media asking for help and were overwhelmed with the feedback they received.

A family friend, Stephen Vassallo, saw them on Xarabank and offered to undergo tests to confirm whether his kidney would be compatible with Bartolo’s body.

In February 2014, Bartolo and Vassallo went under the knife in a complex, eight-hour transplant operation – an extraordinary act of selfless love.

More unconditional love was coming Bartolo’s way. On the eve of the surgery, he sent a text message to his old friend Borg, whom he had not met for 16 years, and a visit to hospital marked the start of their relationship, which flourishes to this day.

“I promised myself we would do anything to win justice”

As it turned out, Borg stepped into Bartolo’s life at a crucial time: she was about to become his primary warrior, along with his lawyers, in his fight for justice.

A year before, in 2013, Bartolo had been arrested over possession of cannabis resin but admitted with investigators to dealing in a kilogram. He was interrogated in spite of having just done a routine dialysis session and without a lawyer present.

In April 2017, he was sentenced to five years in prison and a €15,000 fine. 

Bartolo appealed the sentence after changing lawyers and started to serve his term.

Inadequate prison conditions, poor sanitary environment and the unbearable heat during the summer caused Bartolo’s health to deteriorate rapidly, until his transplanted kidney failed as well.

The news caused public outcry. 

The cannabis case was still at appeal stage when Bartolo won a separate, constitutional case rendering null the statements he had made to police on arrest, due to the absence of a lawyer.

His team of lawyers, led by Franco Debono, pulled off a difficult legal ploy, invoking an article of the Criminal Code that is rarely, if ever used, which allows the president to grant bail on advice of cabinet.

This was different to a presidential pardon and it would not absolve Bartolo of the crime. It would simply get him out of prison on bail and into house arrest, where he could receive adequate care.

In a historic resolution, president Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca signed for bail and Bartolo walked out of jail on February 27, 2018.

Meanwhile, they were fighting yet another constitutional case – to declare null his declaration under oath to the inquiring magistrate the day after he was arrested. That case was decided by Judge Toni Abela a few months ago but the state advocate appealed. 

In its final judgment delivered on April 26, the Constitutional Court said “it hardly made sense” to declare the police statements inadmissible but then allow a sworn declaration confirming those same statements to be given before the magistrate conducting an inquiry.

“The circumstances which may have tainted those statements likewise tainted the sworn declaration,” ruled the court, presided over by Mr Justice Joseph R. Micallef with Mr Justices Tonio Mallia and Anthony Ellul.

This means the case is now about 167 grams of cannabis, and not a kilogram. And the legal framework around cannabis has changed drastically since Bartolo was first charged.

“Thank God we managed to get him out of prison with the help of his lawyers and the media, because otherwise he would have almost served an entire sentence which we now know to be invalid,” Borg said.

“From the moment I saw him in hospital after his transplant, I knew something was off with his case and I promised myself we would do anything to win justice.”

Bartolo expressed deep gratitude to have Borg in his life: “No other partner would have gone in the fire for me like she did,” he said, shedding tears.

And he expressed gratitude for the lawyers and judges. “They handled the case in the most professional way,” he said.