Man serving 18 years for attempted murder requests retrial on human rights grounds

A man serving an 18-year sentence for attempted murder, whose conviction rested partly on the strength of a confession he had made without a lawyer being present, has requested a retrial claiming his fundamental human rights had been breached.

Stephen Pirotta, 45, of Luqa, was jailed for 18 years in 2010 after a jury had found him guilty of the attempted murder of David Azzopardi in a 2005 road rage incident. The sentence was confirmed on appeal.

Pirotta had stabbed Azzopardi after the latter protested after his car's mirror had been hit by Pirotta's overtaking vehicle. Azzopardi's life was saved by emergency surgery.

Pirotta had immediately confessed to the crime to the police and was later convicted of attmepted murder, illegal possession of a sharp and pointed instrument, dangerous driving and breaching the peace, receiving an 18-year prison sentence. A subsequent appeal was turned down.

In the application filed before the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction, lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Amadeus Cachia argue that Pirotta's statement to the police after his arrest, released in the absence of his lawyer, was a key factor in his conviction.

In addition, it argues that he was not given access to the evidence the police had against him - almost unthinkable today - as the rule of disclosure had not been incorporated into Maltese law at the time.

The application requests the court to order the case be re-tried and cites several judgements by the European Court of Human Rights on the issue, amongst them Mario Borg v Malta, which last month held that the Maltese Constitutional Court was breaching a constitutional instrument of European public order.

It also undermined a principle established in landmark judgment Salduz v Turkey in which the ECHR had held that the applicant’s fair trial rights were prejudiced by restrictions on his access to a lawyer during police custody.