Men accused of stealing Lm93.35 awarded €700 compensation for 23-year court case

The Constitutional Court has awarded compensation to two men who were made to wait 23 years to be cleared of stealing a cheque for LM93.35 in 1990.

Raymond Bonnici from Marsa and Ronald Urry from Paola, today aged 55 and 50 respectively, had been charged with stealing the cheque in question on the 14 December 1990. However the case was delayed by a series of technical legal issues, no-shows by one or both of the accused or their lawyers for various reasons together with long periods between sittings.  

In fact, for more than seven years the case was repeatedly deferred due to court technicalities and for another eight years, sentencing was postponed. The two men claimed that such lengthy proceedings had breached their right to an expedited judgement.

They had filed an application in 2013, quoting case law which established that "criminal proceedings should be designed to avoid that a person charged should remain too long in a state of uncertainty about his fate".

The criminal case was eventually held to be time-barred and the two men sued for compensation.

The court condemned the length of proceedings, describing the behaviour of the accused, who it said had repeatedly blocked the progress of proceedings, as deplorable. It also had harsh words for the prosecution, who it accused as suffering from “total inertia and lack of commitment to assure the presence of the accused for sittings.”

Not even the court of magistrates escaped criticism. “It is plain that the court as presided during the proceedings did not take the necessary measures to bring the proceedings to a conclusion and prevent the accused and the prosecution from continuously blocking proceedings.”

This, it said, contributed considerably to the delay of proceedings and allowed the case to slip out of its control, before the case was transferred to another magistrate.

Judges Silvio Camilleri, Giannino Caruana Demajo and Noel Cuschieri were of the opinion that while the accused had undoubtedly contributed to the breach of their right to justice within a reasonable time, this breach was principally the fault of the prosecution and the courts for not doing taking the necessary steps to ensure this right is respected.

The two men were awarded €700 in moral damages each. In calculating the amount of compensation, the court took into account the delay, the criminal nature of proceedings, the uncertainty, frustration and anxiety caused to the accused and their role in the delay. 

Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Angie Muscat appeared for the men.