A former employee at the government IT agency who was cleared of corruption in a €30 million tender for Mater Dei Hospital, has been awarded €100,000 in compensation after a court found that the 12-year criminal process had breached his rights to a fair hearing. 

Noel Xuereb was employed at MITTS when charges were issued in his regard over allegations of bribery and corruption after serving on the evaluation committee processing a tender for IT services at the state hospital.

The former core information systems manager was arraigned in January 2007 and was released on bail when the case went to first hearing days later.

But that event marked the start of a 12-year court saga that dragged on, spelling trauma and great challenges for the newlywed accused and his spouse, that only reached conclusion with a judgment pronouncing his acquittal in April 2019, the court observed.

Xuereb filed an action for damages claiming that the unnecessary delay in the criminal trial had breached his right to a fair hearing.

When delivering judgment on Tuesday, Madam Justice Anna Felice, observed that “it hardly needed to be said that the lapse of 12 years for a case to be decided was not a reasonable time.”

Twelve boxes of documents presented by the prosecution, “most of them useless,” had lengthened the process, making it necessary for the second magistrate assigned the case to rope in the assistance of a lawyer to organise the volumes.

Matters were set back further owing to the fact that the case moved from one magistrate to another, changing hands four times, before landing before the magistrate who delivered final judgment.

The prosecution wrapped up its evidence in 2012, when the case was assigned to a different magistrate who appointed the lawyer to organize the documents presented thus far.

That task was concluded three years later and a first hearing for the defence to commence its evidence stage was scheduled for May 2015.

But the magistrate subsequently retired and the next magistrate abstained from hearing the case that was ultimately assigned to the fourth magistrate.

Xuereb’s lawyer wrapped up evidence within six months in March 2019 and judgment was delivered on April 1.

Madam Justice Felice said that the case was not “extraordinarily complex” and most delaying factors were not attributable to Xuereb.

When assessing compensation for the breach of rights, the court pointed out the “most particular” circumstances of the case.

At the time of his arraignment, Xuereb used to handle large-scale projects and sat on the Mater Dei Hospital tendering evaluation committee.

The criminal action spelt a long period of trauma and great challenges for the newly wedded man, deeply impacting his personal life, said the judge, thus awarding record damagesof €100,000 for the unjustified delay.

That sum is to be forked out jointly by the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner as respondents.

Lawyers Joe Giglio and Sarah Mifsud assisted the applicant.