Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1475004
13 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 31 JULY 2022 MATTHEW AGIUS JOSEPH Zammit, who is currently serv- ing a 30-year prison sentence for com- plicity in the killing of bank messenger Alphonse Ferriggi, 42, during a Septem- ber 2000 bank robbery, is claiming to have suffered multiple breaches of his fundamental rights during the criminal proceedings against him, starting from his unassisted statement to police all the way to his trial lawyer telling jurors that "some guilt will surely be found" in his closing statement. A BOV bank messenger, Ferriggi had been shot in the face at point blank range, with a shotgun, outside the San Gwann BOV branch. He had been delivering seven bags of internal bank mail, which the bank robbers had thought contained money. Ferriggi, father of a 12-year-old boy at the time of the murder, was pro- nounced dead at the scene. Richard Grech 'Iz-Zinanna' and Joseph Zammit were tried for the killing in 2009. Grech was sentenced to life behind bars after the jury found him guilty of mur- der. The jury also found Joseph Zammit guilty of complicity in the murder, as well as other heads of indictment, including aggravated armed robbery and holding a person against their will. Zammit re- ceived a 31-year prison sentence for the crimes. Zammit had immediately filed an ap- peal to his sentence. That case was de- cided two years later, with the Court of Criminal Appeal upholding Zammit's ap- peal, but only with regards to one of the 8 heads of indictment that he had been found guilty of. His sentence was reduced by just one year – to 30 years, on appeal. And that appeared to be that until last week, when his new lawyer, Daniel At- tard, filed an application before the First Hall of the Civil Court in its constitution- al jurisdiction. In that constitutional application, At- tard requested a retrial or the reopening of proceedings, arguing that his illiterate client had not been allowed to consult with a lawyer before he was questioned and, as a result, had released two incrim- inating statements after a 1am interroga- tion session at the police HQ. The applicant had been so misled about the effects of releasing a statement, said the lawyer, that the statement ends with Zammit telling his interrogator: "I hope I didn't incriminate myself for nothing." Although this practice was legal at the time, the law and the courts' interpreta- tion of the right to legal assistance have since developed and today that right ap- plies not only when taking statements, but stretches all the way back to the inter- rogation stage. Zammit is also claiming his fair trial rights were breached by the failure to ad- equately document the chain of custody of the evidence against him. This had led to some of the evidence being exhibited in court by the police and not by an inde- pendent forensic expert, he said. "The only piece of physical evidence ex- hibited in court which connects the appli- cant to the prosecution's version of events is defective for several reasons, including the fact that the DNA sample exhibited does not belong to the applicant, and also due to the fact that established scientific methods were not followed when the evi- dence was collected," Zammit's constitu- tional application states. Zammit also took issue with the "passive attitude" adopted by the Criminal Court towards the fact that his defence lawyer at the time had declared Zammit to be guilty, despite the accused maintaining his innocence. These factors had cumulatively preju- diced Zammit's constitutional right to a fair trial, argued Attard, asking the court to order a retrial of the case and order the defendants to compensate his client for the human rights breaches which they had caused him to suffer. Bank robber Joseph Zammit, serving 30 years for murder of BOV bank messenger Alphonse Ferrigi in 2000, demands retrial over claimed human rights breaches Bank robber, jailed over fatal BOV heist, demands retrial Convict Joseph Zammit says he was not allowed to consult with a lawyer, releasing two incriminating statements after a 1am interrogation at the police HQ. The applicant had been so misled about the effects of releasing a statement, that the statement ends with Zammit telling his interrogator: "I hope I didn't incriminate myself for nothing" The Times of Malta report of 19 September, 2000