After Eight Long Years, Kidney Patient’s Cannabis Court Sentence Revoked In Landmark Judgement
A Gozitan father who lost a kidney while in prison and faces several more years behind bars has had his five-year jail term removed in a landmark judgement by the Constitutional Court – and a temporary major win.
Lovin Malta has followed the case of Christopher Bartolo closely since 2017, when he was sentenced to prison after being found with 167g of cannabis resin.
And after years in court and prison, the Constitutional Court has finally recognised that a sworn statement that Bartolo gave a magistrate and that was central to him being found guilty could not be used in court as it had been taken without Bartolo’s lawyer present.
Police officers had infamously approached Bartolo as he was leaving a routine dialysis session at Mater Dei, taking him in for interrogation. Sessions typically take around four hours.
In a weakened and vulnerable state, and without his lawyers present, Bartolo was interrogated, giving statements that have now been deemed “tainted” by court, and cannot be used as evidence in his trial.
This means that Bartolo’s case will now return to to the pre-judgment stage.
Legally, suspects have a right to have their lawyer present when giving statements – and today’s ruling means this is also true of statements given to magistrates without a lawyer present, and not just police officers.
“The circumstances which may have tainted those statements likewise tainted the sworn declaration,” Justices Joseph R. Micallef, Tonio Mallia and Anthony Ellul said in their statement, the Times of Malta reported.
Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Francesca Zarb represented Bartolo.
In 2018, Bartolo was released from prison suddenly in the middle of the night after Malta’s cabinet stepped in on humanitarian grounds and recommended he be let out on extraordinary bail.
Lovin Malta interviewed him the day after he was released from prison in his home on his first day out – check it out by clicking here.
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