Alberto Chang-Rajii claims 'impossible' bail conditions breach human rights

Chilean investor and failed IIP applicant Alberto Chang-Rajii is claiming that a Criminal Court has violated his fundamental rights by imposing a bail condition that it knew he would be unable to satisfy, after the court registrar refused to accept the payment of his €100,000 bail deposit in cash.

Chang-Rajii remains in custody, having been arrested in Sliema last week on the strength of an extradition request by the judicial authorities in Chile, where he is wanted on charges of defrauding investors out of nearly $100 million.

He had disappeared from the United States in April, where he is also wanted for allegedly mis-selling over $5.7 million in investment schemes, turning up in Malta as an applicant for Maltese citizenship under the Individual Investor Programme. He was granted a residence permit by Identity Malta, according to media reports, but soon after charges were issued against him abroad, Identity Malta had revoked the residence permit and his citizenship application was eventually rejected.

The Chilean businessman is fighting extradition on the grounds of what his lawyers allege to be flaws in the investigation in Chile. “He is trying to avoid what he believes to be a malicious prosecution,” Filletti had explained to the Criminal Court last week, while offering to exhibit an agreement by lawyers in Chile to a settlement of $30 million that he claimed could lead to the withdrawal of extradition proceedings.

Despite being granted bail against a deposit of €100,000, Chang-Rajii remains in prison due to an administrative policy which forbids cash deposits of more than €11,000 in court. The Chilean's defence team is arguing that his continued detention was not in accordance with the law because he could satisfy the court-imposed bail conditions, but was being prevented from doing so by the court registry's policy of not accepting large amounts of cash.

Earlier today, Chang-Rajii's lawyers filed a Constitutional application against the Minster for Justice, Culture and Local Government, the Attorney General, the Director General of the Courts and the Director General of the Maltese Criminal Courts and Tribunals, demanding his immediate release.

This morning's application, filed by lawyers Stefano Filletti and Stephen Tonna Lowell, explained how the Chilean had initially been arraigned and granted bail under a number of conditions which included a deposit of €2,000. Following an application by the Attorney General, asking for an amendment of the surprisingly anaemic bail conditions, the Criminal Court had increased the man's bail deposit by €98,000.

The lawyers state that their client is “in a position to meet this condition,” but had been informed by representatives of the Registrar of Courts that the Courts' policy was that sums of cash of €11,000 and over would not be accepted for security reasons and due to anti-money laundering rules. Nor could he pay by bank draft since banks would likewise find objections due to money laundering regulations. 

“As a consequence of this arbitrary decision, applicant is currently still being unlawfully detained,” the Constitutional application reads.

Last week, Chang-Rajii had filed an application before the Criminal Court requesting it vary the bail deposit to an amount acceptable by the Registrar of Courts or alternatively, to order the Registrar of Courts to allow him to deposit the money, but this request was rejected on 14 December, the court also citing the possibility of money laundering as the reason for its refusal.

The day after the Criminal Court turned down his request, Chang-Rajii's lawyers had filed an urgent application before the Court of Magistrates, alleging unlawful and arbitrary detention. But in its decision delivered from chambers on the same day, the Court of Magistrates also rejected that claim, saying that the position adopted by the registrar was “not only morally correct, but ... a position based on the respect that the relevant authorities need to give to the anti-money laundering rules and regulations.”

It had been the court of Magistrate's opinion that the businessman was being held legally and that it was Chang-Rajii's responsibility to fulfil his bail conditions in accordance with the law. The argument put forward by the applicant, that the Registrar of Courts must accept the bail bond in cash, after which it could investigate the provenance of those funds “does not hold ground,” it had held.

This morning's court application asks the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction to declare Chang-Rajii's continued arrest to be a violation of the man's human rights and to order his immediate release from custody.