Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/535515
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 1 JULY 2015 7 News No breach of human rights in Daniel Holmes trial, court rules Court argues that in spite of the delays, which led to his trial taking "longer than was strictly necessary", there was no breach of Holmes' right to justice within a reasonable time MATTHEW AGIUS JAILED Welshman Daniel Holm- es has been dealt another disap- pointment after a court rejected a Constitutional application he had filed, holding that his human rights had not been violated. Holmes, who is serving 10-and- a-half years in prison for cannabis cultivation, had filed a constitu- tional application against the At- torney General, the Police Com- missioner and the Registrar of the Gozo courts, claiming that his human rights had been breached when he had not been granted ac- cess to a lawyer at the time of his arrest and interrogation. Holmes and another man, Ber- ry Charles Lee, were arraigned in Gozo in December 2007, on charges of theft, voluntary dam- age and with having caused slight injuries to a third party. Holmes claimed that he had been held in preventive custody for almost a year before being granted bail in December 2008. Holmes was eventually acquitted of these charges five years later, in 2013. His 10 and a half years' sentence is for cultivating about a kilogramme of cannabis. In his constitutional application Holmes complained of a breach of his right to legal assistance when under arrest, that his legal aid lawyer had not mounted an adequate defence and that he had been held in custody without bail for an unreasonable time. The right to legal assistance during interrogation was intro- duced into Maltese criminal law in the years following Holmes' arrest. The court, however, held that in spite of the delays, which led to his trial taking "longer than was strictly necessary", there was no breach of his right to justice with- in a reasonable time. Two RIU policemen to be charged with beating up alleged drink driver Jean Paul Aquilina, accused of dangerous driving, disobeying police orders and assaulting police officers who had pulled him over for driving erratically, is claiming that he was brutally attacked by the police MATTHEW AGIUS TWO Rapid Intervention Unit policemen are to be charged with causing slight bodily harm and committing a crime they were duty bound to prevent, following allegations of police brutality in handling a drink driving case. The news emerged in court dur- ing proceedings against Jean Paul Aquilina, who is accused of dan- gerous driving, disobeying police orders and assaulting police offic- ers who had pulled him over for driving erratically. Aquilina, on the other hand, is claiming that he had been brutally attacked by the police. Presiding Magistrate Carol Per- alta was decidedly unimpressed that the prosecution had omitted to inform him that two of the of- ficers involved, Mark Tonna and David Camilleri, are now facing criminal charges in connection with the incident. After giv- ing the prosecution a thorough dressing down for not informing the court of this, he ordered that the two cases be heard in tandem in his court. Earlier in the sitting, a district police sergeant who had arrived at the scene of the incident short- ly after the man's arrest, told the court that the accused did not ap- pear to be drunk. Police sergeant David Cina was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Aquilina. "He was not drunk, 100%. No smell of alcohol, definitely," he testified Cina was shown photographs of Aquilina's injuries. He told the court that he had not seen many of the wounds and could not iden- tify all the photographs. "Nobody brought it to my attention at the time of the incident." "We had been informed by the depot that there was a family ar- gument on the Mgarr road and that the RIU had already arrived. When I arrived there were 6-8 RIU policemen and the rest were civilians who looked worried and angry at what had happened." "What made them angry?" he was asked by the court. "They were saying 'look what they've done to him, they beat him up for nothing' and Josianne Vassallo was crying inconsolably. "The accused had what looked like a puncture wound under his eye," said the police sergeant. "He was handcuffed at the time and burst out crying, saying 'look what they did to me'." The witness said Aquilina's be- haviour looked genuine to him so he told him that the best thing to do was to go to the station and talk. His girlfriend, Josianne Vas- sallo was repeatedly telling him that one policeman was violent. "The small one, the small one beat him up, he kept on hitting him," he recalled her as saying. At no point were the Aquilina family aggressive, he said. "They were rather dignified, actually. I subconsciously noted that they were demanding justice. They could not accept it." The police sergeant decided to take Aquilina to the station in the district police car and not send him with the RIU. "His girlfriend wanted to ride with us, she was so concerned, but we couldn't al- low that." Aquilina was given medical at- tention upon his arrival at the station, said the sergeant, "as he was not in a state to give a state- ment." The case continues. Daniel Holmes – court finds no breach of human rights File photo RIU policemen – file photo