Darryl Luke Borg awarded just €150 compensation in Constitutional case

The court held that Darryl Luke Borg had contributed to the injustice he suffered by requesting that he be released on bail and not that he be released from custody unconditionally.

Borg had filed constitutional proceedings after being denied bail following his arrest in connection with a convenience store hold-up.  It transpired that Borg had no connection with the crime and he was released on bail.

 The mistake had come to light two days later, when the police had arraigned Roderick Grech for the same incident. Grech was handed a suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty.The charges against Borg were subsequently dropped.

As a result of the incident, the Police Board had chastised the inspector involved for failing to inform his superiors of the error. An internal report, published 18 months after it was made available to the Commissioner, had recommended disciplinary action against two CID inspectors responsible for the arrest.

The Constitutional Court, presided by Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, and judges Noel Cuschieri and Giannino Caruana Demajo, held that Borg’s arrest had been justified by the fact that he was a suspect and noted that he had not contested the arrest during his arraignment.

In so doing, held the court, Borg had conceded that there was a reasonable suspicion in his regard which justified his continued detention. In addition, the court had heard the prosecuting inspector relate to the circumstances that led to Borg’s arrest and said it was satisfied that the arrest was justified and legal.

Borg was released on bail on the 9th of August 2013 and the charges against him were dropped on the 12th , after the arrest of Roderick Grech. It was this release on bail which was not in conformity with the fundamental human right to liberty, said the court, as this restriction ceased to be justified as from the moment in which the prosecuting inspector determined that there was no reasonable suspicion that Borg had committed the offence in question.

It ruled that Borg’s rights had been breached and awarded him €150 as a measure of goodwill, holding he had not suffered any monetary damages as a result of his detention from the 9th till the afternoon of the 12th August 2013.

Borg’s legal team: lawyers David Camilleri and Joseph Gatt, inform this paper that, in view of the derisory amount of compensation awarded, they intend to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.