A man caught red-handed with sachets of heroin and cocaine in his car was released as a free man on Tuesday, because the police officer who caught him did not inform him that he was under arrest. 

Stefano Montebello, 37 and with no fixed address, was arrested on Monday by a police constable who initially approached him in Qawra to give him a traffic contravention, having noticed his car parked illegally on a street corner. 

The constable however chose to search the car after noticing that Montebello was acting suspiciously. The search yielded 19 sachets of suspected heroin and 27 of what is believed to be cocaine, and Montebello was arrested and taken in for questioning. 

He was arraigned on Tuesday but was soon out a free man. His lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb argued that their client had not been informed that he was under arrest, as required by law. 

Aricle 355A of Malta’s criminal code states that “when a person is arrested, the arrest is not lawful unless the person arrested is informed that he is under arrest, even though the arrest may be obvious.”

It further notes that an arrest is not lawful “unless  the  person  arrested  is informed at the time of his arrest or detention, in a language that he understands, of the reasons for his arrest or detention.”

In this case, Montebello had noted in his police statement that he had not been informed that he was under arrest, or what he had been arrested for. The arresting officer had not contested that statement, his lawyer Debono noted in court on Tuesday. 

The court, presided by magistrate Ian Farrugia, took note of that and declared that Montebello’s arrest was illegal.

Inspector Warren Galea prosecuted.