Bank of Valletta has filed proceedings against Italy before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, trying to ensure a ‘fair hearing’ in the €363 million Deiulemar case.

The bank said in a company announcement on Friday that the proceedings were being instituted to safeguard “its fundamental right” in terms of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Read: €363m to be frozen after BOV loses appeal in Italian case

The €363 million is linked to a trust opened by the owners of the collapsed shipping giant Deiulemar. The company went bankrupt in 2012 with losses of more than €800 million on its books. Seven people were jailed as a result of the collapse.

The claim was filed by liquidators of the Deiulemar group and representatives of 13,000 Italian bondholders who lost all their life savings in the fraud scheme dating back to 2009.

Bank of Valletta lost its appeal last July against a €363 million precautionary warrant imposed by an Italian court at Torre Annunziata a few months earlier.

The actual hearing of the case hasn’t yet started and a Calamatta Cuschieri analyst had explained last August that the location of the court was a concern: "The Tribunal of Torre Annunziata in Italy, according to bank officials, could be biased due to the majority of the creditors originating from this relatively small provincial town. The bank is in fact in the process of attempting to get the case heard in Naples to mitigate a potential unfair judgement."

The bank had put aside €75 million for any potential losses it might incur as a result of this and two other separate litigation cases – the appeal against the Financial Services Arbiter’s decision on the Property Fund; and its discussions with the Swedish Pensions Agency with regard to the Falcon Funds.