A contractor responsible for a building collapse that killed two women in 2004 has been sent back to prison, months after he was temporarily released from jail.
A constitutional court ruled on Tuesday that Paul Demicoli must serve a two-year prison sentence, overturning an interim measure suspending its execution.
Maria Dolores Zarb, 60, was giving a Maltese language lesson to Russian student Nadya Vavilova, 24, when her St Paul’s Bay home collapsed on June 3, 2004, killing them both.
The collapse had led to criminal action against Demicoli as the contractor, the worker carrying out excavation works at the time, Kevin Bonnici, and the owner of the plot, Paul Magro. They were charged with involuntary homicide and inadequate risk assessment.
In 2009 Demicoli and Bonnici were found guilty and condemned to a three-year and an 18-month jail term respectively. Magro was acquitted.
In November of last year, Demicoli had his three-year prison sentence reduced to two years on appeal after being convicted of causing their deaths through negligence.
In a candid opinion piece written for Times of Malta the following week, Zarb's daughter Marie Diane Mulè Stagno described why she has forgiven him and others found responsible for the tragedy.
Paul Demicoli was one of two men jailed for having caused, through negligence, the death of two women when a building in St Paul’s Bay collapsed during excavation works on an adjacent plot.
Meanwhile, Demicoli instituted separate proceedings before the constitutional courts claiming that his right to a fair trial within a reasonable time had been breached on account of the delay experienced before the criminal courts.
His lawyers requested an interim measure whereby Demicoli would not continue to serve his punishment until the breach of rights case was definitively concluded.
In February, the First Hall, Civil Court in its constitutional jurisdiction upheld Demicoli’s request, granting the measure which is normally reserved for exceptional circumstances.
The court declared that it was “fair and equitable” to grant such a measure and ordered Demicoli’s release from prison until the case was decided.
However, that decision was overturned on Tuesday by the Constitutional Court presiding over an appeal filed by the Attorney General, the Police Commissioner and the State Advocate.
The court observed that criminal proceedings against Demicoli had started in 2005 and reached the final judgment stage last year.
In view of that delay, Demicoli expected that he ought to be spared an effective jail term.
The interim measure granted by the first court was exceptional in nature and as a rule, judgments were not to be rendered ineffective simply because the accused filed a breach of rights case.
If he were to succeed in his claims, it would be left to the discretion of the constitutional court to apply an adequate remedy.
In this case, Demicoli did not put forward any argument to convince the court that a reduction of punishment would be the best remedy, observed the three judges presiding over the Constitutional Court.
Demicoli’s punishment had already been reduced on appeal.
Rather than order suspension of execution of the judgment, the first court could have ordered the constitutional proceedings to be heard with urgency so that a decision could be delivered in the shortest time possible.
That would have been more appropriate than suspending the execution of a judgment which was final and that was where the court, as composed by Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti, together with Mr Justices Giannino Caruana Demajo and Anthony Ellul, disagreed with the first court.
The respondents’ appeal was thus upheld and the interim measure was revoked.