Darryl Luke Borg

Darryl Luke Borg, the man who spent three nights in jail for a crime he never committed, was awarded a paltry €150 yesterday, despite a Constitutional Court acknowledging his human rights had been breached.

The sum was described as “minimal” by his lawyers David Camilleri and Joseph Gatt, who said they will proceed with a case before the European Court of Human Rights.

They said the compensation was low considering their client had been deprived of his liberty.

Aside from the compensation, however, they were satisfied that the Constitutional Court had upheld their claim that their client’s rights had been breached.

The court established the sum after noting that Mr Borg had contributed to the breach of his own human rights by requesting his release on bail and not that he was to be released from custody unconditionally.

Yesterday’s decision overturned a ruling last July by the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction which had not found any human rights breach. It had ruled that the police did not act negligently when they arraigned the 27-year-old over the armed robbery and that the two police CID inspectors who took him to court were justified in treating him as a suspect.

The Constitutional Court, presided over by Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri and Judges Giannino Caruana Demajo and Noel Cuschieri, ruled that Mr Borg’s right had been breached as a result of his wrongful arrest and arraignment over something he had not done.

Mr Borg’s ordeal began in August 2013 when he was arrested, arraigned and remanded in custody over an armed robbery at The Convenience Shop, a grocery store in Mgr Alfred Mifsud Street, Birkirkara.

In his appeal, Mr Borg’s lawyers insisted that the police could never have had a reasonable suspicion that it was their client because CCTV footage of the crime showed it was clearly not him. The person seen and later convicted had a completely different stature.

They also argued that the police failed to immediately withdraw proceedings against him despite someone else admitting to the crime and that, as a result, Mr Borg remained behind bars for an extra 24 hours.

The court had heard that police inspectors Joseph Mercieca and Carlos Cordina had received confidential information that Mr Borg was the culprit and he was charged in court the following day and held in custody.

But two days later, police inspector Elton Taliana charged Roderick Grech, 22, from Birkirkara, with the same crime after he confessed and even handed over a balaclava and a plastic toy gun used during the hold-up.

Mr Grech was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for four years, after the court heard that he used the €630 to settle gambling debts.

In its judgment, the Constitutional Court noted that the CID officers’ decision to arrest Mr Borg was truly based on a reasonable suspicion and that the arrest was not arbitrary. Moreover, it found as “reasonable” the time that had passed between Mr Grech’s arraignment and sentencing to the day when Inspector Mercieca was informed and consulted with the Attorney General’s office on the matter.

However, it found that Mr Borg’s conditional release from arrest once it was ascertained that a mistake had been committed was in breach of his right to liberty. It, therefore, found a breach of right from the minute he was released on bail until the charges were effectively withdrawn three days later.

The court, therefore, ordered the Police Commissioner to pay Mr Borg €150 in compensation after noting that Mr Borg had contributed to the breach by not requesting his unconditional release rather than bail. The court also noted that at no point during his arraignment did Mr Borg complain that his arrest was invalid.