Man acquitted of Sion Grech murder claims human rights breach

A man who spent 10 years in preventive custody, accused of the murder of Sion Grech in 2005, only to be acquitted at trial last year, has filed a human rights case against the State.

In the years before finally being declared not guilty of Grech’s murder by a jury, in January 2023 Faical Mahouachi had been unable to afford his €5000 bail bond.

In an application filed to the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction on Wednesday by lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Francesca Zarb, Mahouachi claimed his right to liberty and security and right to a fair hearing in a reasonable time had been breached, asking the court to provide a remedy. The case has been assigned to Mr. Justice Toni Abela and will begin in 2024.

The plaintiff argues that the compilation of evidence had been needlessly prolonged by the “many abusive renvois” filed by the Attorney General, referring to a procedure where the public prosecutor asks the compiling court to gather more evidence to strengthen the prosecution’s case. His request for a Constitutional reference, after the Court of Magistrates refused to reduce his bail guarantees to a manageable amount was neither rejected nor upheld, his lawyers claim.

Mahouachi said despite the case against him appearing to be “manifestly weak and insufficient” from the beginning, he had spent 10 years in custody. 

Sion Grech died in April 2005, after being stabbed 17 times, her remains being discovered in a field in Marsa a week after she was reported missing. The body was found to have multiple stab wounds to the neck and chest.

An anonymous letter sent to the police years later, led them to a woman who had witnessed the murder and was currently in prison, serving time for unrelated offences.

The woman, Jacqueline Rapinett, told the police that she had seen Grech’s partner, Ismael Habesh arguing with the victim about some drugs. Rapinett said she had seen Habesh assault Grech, later being joined by another man. The still-resisting victim was carried to a nearby field where they stabbed her to death, she said.

But Rapinett’s account was contradicted by the findings of a medico-legal expert, who told the jury that there had been no signs of a struggle at the spot where the body was found - indicating that she had been killed elsewhere.

Both Habesh and Mahouachi were subsequently acquitted of murder by the jury.

This is the second claim for compensation related to the trial. Earlier this year, Grech’s family had filed a judicial protest against the State, arguing that shortcomings in the criminal investigation and subsequent prosecution case had doomed the prospect of their relative’s murderers ever being punished. 

Throughout the Sion Grech murder proceedings, Mahouachi was assisted by legal aid lawyers Joseph Ellis and Simon Micallef Stafrace.