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Malta criticized on bail conditions by European Court
Domestic courts did not take the necessary care in fixing appropriate bail conditions, European Court says.
23 July 2013, 12:00am
James J. Piscopo
James J. Piscopo
1 min read
The European Court of Human Rights censored the Maltese judicial system on setting bail conditions. In it's ruling, it also found unacceptable the period of time one is detained before the case is heard in a reasonable time.
The court heard how Tomas Mikalauskas, a Lithuanian national accused of drug charges in September 2009, was detained and repeatedly remanded in custody over a period of ten months. After this period, Mikalauskas was granted bail subject to high financial guarantees.
In fact, on 16 July 2010 the applicant was granted bail subject to conditions, including a deposit of €50,000 and a personal guarantee of €15,000. Following two unsuccessful requests to have these sums lowered, upon his third request, in February 2011 the deposit was reduced to €40,000, but the personal guarantee increased to €60,000. It took another two months for the deposit to be reduced to EUR 30,000 and the personal guarantee to EUR 15,000. The applicant finally managed to satisfy this condition and was eventually released only on 7 July 2011.
In its ruling, the court said the fact that the "applicant remained in custody for another twelve months after being granted bail, was a strong indication that the domestic courts had not taken the necessary care in fixing appropriate bail conditions."
Mikalauskas - represented by lawyer Joe Brincat - also alleged that conditions of his detention were inhuman since medical care provided to health problems were not adequate. However, the Court did not find this was the case and ruled against these allegations.
The court found Malta guilty of not respecting Article 5 (right to liberty and security) and imposed a €4,000 fine and a further €1,000 in costs and damages.
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Are they suggesting that we should send CRIMINALS to some 5 or 6 star Hotel? or maybe on some fully paid vacation?
This is ridiculous. In some countries drug charges carries a death penalty. What is the EU doing about this?????
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Are they suggesting that we should send CRIMINALS to some 5 or 6 star Hotel? or maybe on some fully paid vacation?
This is ridiculous. In some countries drug charges carries a death penalty. What is the EU doing about this?????
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It is always the same way. Have a Conservative non democratic government aligned to the PPP and the European Court (as well as the Commission) does absolutely nothing. Change the Government to a Labour, Progressive one aligned to the Socialist Group and the European Court finally wakes up and starts fining the present Government for what the previous corrupt Government did. THAT IS EUROPE - the two tiered, two grade EUROPE that has done nothing to the Karamanlis Greek Conservative Government when they bankcrupted the Country and immediately pounced on Papandreu and caused such injustices in Greece. Again it is doing nothing to stop the corruption in Spain since Rahoj is conservative. No I am sorry, Europe is a club for the few enticing the others to drain them out and put them out of competition. The EU has betrayed Malta or rather the previous Maltese Government has betrayed Malta and sold it lock stock and barrel to the EU - we have become the brunt of all these illegal immigrants conveniently left here to stop them from going to Europe and now the European Court of Injustice has come up with three judgements against Malta in just the spate of 1 day. IT IS DISGUSTING. Malta should OPT out of the EU and the corrupt unjust system it operates.
