Underage prostitutes' pimp claims breach of human rights during interrogation

Lawyers for a man accused of acting as a pimp to three underage prostitutes have asked the courts to declare that his human rights were breached during his interrogation.

It appears that the man, who cannot be named due to a court-imposed ban on publication, had been in a relationship with one of the underage girls.


The girl with whom the accused had been in a relationship had told the police that he had asked, on several occasions, to sell her body but she had not been keen on the idea.

On one particular day, however he had driven her to Gzira, handed her 20 condoms and told her that as soon as she made €400, he would be giving her another 20. After a time, the minor – she would tell punters that she was 19-years-old – tired of this arrangement and told all to her mother, who called the police.

The police also questioned two girls she had mentioned as working with her. After both these girls gave similar accounts to the first, the accused was arrested in 2009 and subsequently jailed for six years. The youth had filed an appeal against the sentence, which appeal was still pending.

In an application filed before the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction, lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri, Amadeus Cachia and Angie Muscat, argued that the accused was just 17 at the time of his questioning and had released a statement without being assisted by a lawyer, as this right had not yet been introduced in the law.

They called on the court to declare that the fundamental human rights of the accused, in particular that to a fair hearing, had been breached.