Two men, awaiting trial over their alleged involvement in a drug trafficking conspiracy 15 years ago have had their trial was postponed due to COVID-19.
The trial by jury of Angelus Vella, 67 and Jason Said, 47, was to kick off on Monday.
Both men stand accused of conspiring to deal in heroin, importing and trafficking seven kilograms of the drug and possessing the drug under circumstances denoting that it was not for their own personal use.
The charges date back to June 2005 when Vella and Said were arrested in a police operation sparked by information about a drug deal that was to take place in the Ċirkewwa area.
On June 6, Vella was stopped by soldiers on board his cabin cruiser and Said, driving a red Pajero, was stopped at a roadblock set up by police.
Telephone intercepts, which appear to have played a crucial role in this operation, were the subject of a constitutional application filed by the accused challenging their validity and requesting their removal from the records of the case.
In the days preceding the arrests, police had worked hand in hand with the Security Service. Officers had subsequently testified, explaining in detail how such phone taps had sparked suspicion about the alleged conspiracy as well as the identity of the players allegedly involved therein.
Based on those intercepts, a police surveillance operation kicked off, with officers finally swooping in on the suspects and discovering the 7kg heroin haul.
Two other men had also faced criminal proceedings in relation to this episode.
The accused’s lawyers are now claiming that those intercepts, obtained under “absolute secrecy” and by means of a procedure that places them beyond judicial scrutiny, constitute a breach of the accused’s right to a fair hearing and thus should be removed from the records of the case.
Phone intercepts are made under a warrant signed by the Minister for Home Affairs, rather than a judicial authority.
Among European states, it is only Malta and the United Kingdom that allow such a procedure and moreover, certain safeguards introduced under UK law have been completely ignored under local law, argued the defence lawyers.
Moreover, an EU Directive placing an obligation upon service providers to retain data has been challenged both before national and European courts, and legislation implementing that Directive has been declared null and void, the lawyers said.
Consequently, data obtained under the ministerial rather than a judicial warrant and without any review by a judicial authority, as well as the retention of data by service providers, was illegal.
Such data breached the accused’s rights and was not to be used in criminal proceedings, the lawyers argued, requesting the court to provide an effective remedy.
Lawyers Franco Debono, Amadeus Cachia and Alex Scerri Herrera signed the application.