Court says drug-dealing policeman's rights breached during interrogation

Court awards compenstion to former policeman Jean Pierre Abdilla, but leaves prison sentence unchanged

A judge has granted €1,000 in compensation to an ex-police officer, jailed in 2009 for drug trafficking, on account of the fact that the policeman had not been cautioned before interrogation.

Jean Pierre Abdilla had been sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment and fined €40,000 in 2009, after a jury adjudged him to be guilty of heroin trafficking and possession of protected species.  An appeals court had overturned his conviction on conspiracy to traffic heroin in 2013 – but left his punishment untouched on account of the other charges which he had been found guilty of.

During his interrogation Abdilla had not been warned –in accordance with the law - that he had the right to remain silent as his answers may be used as evidence against him. In spite of being a police officer himself, and therefore well aware of the implications of his answers, Abdilla argued that his fact had breached his rights.

In his submissions, the Attorney General argued that Abdilla had been a serving police officer at the time of his questioning and would therefore have been familiar with the implications of releasing a statement during interrogation.

However the First Hall of the Civil Court, presided by Judge Silvio Meli, disagreed and held that Abdilla’s fundamental human rights had, in fact, been breached with regard to the caution - although it did not find any such breach with regards to his other complaint about the unfettered discretion of the Attorney General to choose whether to file a bill of indictment for a jury trial or opt for summary proceedings before a magistrate, as this was the law at the time. This discretion has since been made subject to judicial review. 

Lawyers Franco Debono, Angie Muscat and Amadeus Cachia represented Abdilla.