A woman whose life was “paralysed” when her assets were frozen for more than 20 years, and who was eventually cleared over her alleged involvement in a plot to smuggle drugs into Malta, has sued the state for breaching her fundamental human rights.

Yvette Muscat, 58, from Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, filed two cases in the First Hall of the Civil Court in its constitutional jurisdiction, claiming that the state breached her right to the enjoyment of her property and the right to a fair trial since her case took nearly 21 years to be concluded.

Muscat was one of 19 people arraigned in November 2002 over their alleged involvement in a drug-trafficking racket coordinated from the Corradino Correctional Facility where four of the people charged were serving time.

These were Emanuel Camilleri, known as ‘Leli l-Bully’, Charles Muscat known as ‘Il-Pips’, Alfred Bugeja ‘il-Porporina’, and Mario Camilleri ‘l-Imnieħru’, who was killed along with his son Mario Junior in a double murder 11 years later.

The case dated back to 2001 when the Drugs Squad was tipped off about a plot, allegedly coordinated by a number of Corradino prisoners assisted by people on the outside, to import a considerable amount of drugs into Malta.

A joint operation between the police and their Italian counterparts had unearthed the planned passage of some two kilos of cocaine, one kilo of heroin and some 2,000 ecstasy pills from the Netherlands to Sicily and finally to Malta.

However, the plot was thwarted and the drugs never reached their destination. Italian police intervened in time to stop two Maltese men, Fabio Psaila and Raymond Borg, who were about to take delivery of the consignment in Catania.

Investigations revealed that Yvette Muscat, wife of Charles Muscat, was among those relatives who had allegedly received instructions from their relatives in jail to effect payments related to the drug-trafficking.

The case was eventually concluded in 2018 when the Magistrate’s Court found all accused not guilty of all charges due to a lack of evidence.

The Attorney General appealed the case, and the Court of Appeal confirmed the acquittal five years later. In one of her cases, Muscat claimed that her right to a fair trial was breached when the court took almost 21 years to conclude.

The freezing order on all her property “literally paralysed her life”

In a separate case, Muscat complained that she had spent over 20 years being unable to lead a normal life. Apart from regularly attending court sittings, she had all her assets frozen for all this time, leaving her unable to make simple transactions or even have a bank account in her name.

She insisted that the freezing order on all her property “literally paralysed her life” in terms of property, bank money, vehicle insurance, and other basic payments where she could not even use a simple credit card or Visa card. She said this order had denied her the possibility of making any investments for her future.

The mother-of-four said her youngest son was just four years old when the case began, and the freezing order left her unable to support her children and depending heavily on her parents, where she spent many years living with them together with her children as well as other relatives.

She said that living on just under €14,000 a year was an impossible feat, especially to see to the needs of four children. When her eldest son took a home loan and bought his place, she was forced to move there because she did not have enough funds to pay for her rent and neither could she apply for a loan to buy a place.

She insisted she was effectively deprived of enjoying her property, especially during such a long time in which she was presumed innocent.

Through her lawyers Kathleen Calleja Grima and Franco Debono, Muscat quoted several judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, one of which delved into the reasonable relationship of proportionality between the means employed and the aim sought to be realised. The other had found that an individual was forced to shoulder “an excessive burden”.

She therefore called on the court to declare that the 21-year-long case and the freezing order had breached her rights.

Another co-accused who was also cleared of all criminal liability, former bowling champion, seven-times Sportswoman of the Year and recipient of the Ġieħ ir-Repubblika honour in 1999, Sue Abela, recently filed a case in court claiming damages for the “malicious prosecution”.

The government recently changed the law related to freezing orders, now limiting it to the amount made from the crime in question.