Exclusive: Patrick Dalli – ‘Court Has A Political And Personal Vendetta Against Me And My Family’

In a passionate and controversial display of defiance, Patrick Dalli, popular Maltese artist and father to Jean Marc Dalli, recently lashed out against what he perceives to be a discriminatory and corrupt court system.

“I want to tell the Maltese people that the court has been discriminatory and corrupt,” Dalli told Lovin Malta days after his outburst in a Maltese court made national headlines.

Dalli’s son was convicted in 2021 for “trafficking” six pills of ecstasy at a party back in 2013, which has led the father to fervently question the justice of Malta’s judicial system.

His indignation stems from a belief that his son’s case was handled with a bias and severity that belies other similar cases and believes that political incidents in the past lead to a biased decision by the court.

“Here are hundreds of similar drug cases the past years and all of them were dismissed by the court,” Dalli said. “And I have reason to believe that one of the judges, Tony Ellul, has a political and personal agenda against my family and I.”

Patrick’s wife is EU Commissioner Helena Dalli; and Patrick himself famously painted that Joseph Muscat portrait.

He specifically points towards Judge Tony Ellul, claiming that the same judge has previously dismissed cases involving larger quantities of drugs, leading him to question if there was a personal or political vendetta at play.

“What is ridiculous is that at the end of the verdict they told me and my son that we wasted the court’s time by appealing and proceeded to double the fine!”

Dalli’s distress over the perceived injustice was magnified when the court accused him of wasting his time by appealing the decision, even going so far as to double the fine. The father argues that seeking justice for his son should not be viewed as a waste of time but as a fundamental right.

“The truth is already out there, and the people know it, the psychological damage caused to my son cannot be reversed, shame on them.”

“The public knows the truth,” Dalli continued, highlighting the impact this case has had on his son, Jean Marc.

The father argues that even if the court’s verdict were to be overturned now, the psychological damage inflicted on his son is irreversible. He accuses the court of ruining a young man’s life for personal reasons.

It was mentioned that during the verdict Dalli handed a very specific document to the court – and the contents of said documents are still not known to the public.

The debate surrounding the fairness of the court’s handling of drug-related cases has been further fuelled by the dismissal of a similar case.

In contrast to Jean Marc Dalli’s experience, a vulnerable teenager named Alexander Hickey had his drug case restarted due to a potential human rights breach.

Hickey, who was arrested on suspicion of drug possession in 2012, was interrogated by the police without a lawyer present. Despite confessing, his guilty plea was ruled invalid by the Constitutional Court.

And it’s not just Dalli wondering about the court’s mismatched approach to simple drug cases; MP Rosianne Cutajar also questioned the sense in imprisoning a Maltese youth over a handful of pills from an incident that happened a decade ago.