Man awarded €17,000 after 17-year criminal case due to court delays
A Maltese court awarded Clyde Zahra €17,000 after ruling his right to a fair trial within a reasonable time was violated over a 17-year case.
Malta court orders €17,000 payout over 17-year criminal proceedings
A Maltese man has been awarded €17,000 in damages after a court found that systemic court inefficiencies had unnecessarily prolonged his criminal case for 17 years, Times of Malta reports.
Madam Justice Charmaine Galea, presiding over the Civil Court in its constitutional jurisdiction, ruled that Clyde Zahra's right to a hearing within a reasonable time had been violated. The judgment identified prolonged periods of inactivity and administrative failings as the primary drivers of the delay.
Zahra's ordeal began in February 2006, when he was 16 years old. He was brought before the Court of Magistrates on charges of drug trafficking and involuntary homicide. After nearly eight years, that court cleared him of all charges on 16 December 2013. The Attorney General subsequently appealed the acquittal.
That appeal took a further decade to resolve. It was reassigned to four different judges over the course of ten years before the Court of Appeal finally upheld Zahra's full acquittal on 30 November 2023 — bringing the total duration of proceedings to 17 years.
Justice Galea acknowledged the serious nature of the original charges but found no extraordinary complexity in the case that could justify such a timeline. She pointed specifically to extended periods in which no progress whatsoever was made. The court noted that Zahra's defence was responsible for only eight adjournments across the entire case, indicating he bore virtually no responsibility for the delays.
The Constitutional Court reserved particular criticism for the appellate stage. Justice Galea observed that a routine appeal requiring no more than two sittings had consumed nearly a decade, attributing this largely to administrative reshuffling between four judges.
While the First Hall was commended for delivering its judgment within a month of final submissions, the appellate proceedings stood in stark contrast.
A psychiatric certificate presented before the court documented that Zahra had suffered prolonged anxiety and emotional distress directly linked to the unresolved litigation. The court also noted that bail conditions imposed on the then-teenager in 2006 had disrupted his education.
Justice Galea formally upheld Zahra's complaint, declaring a breach of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 39 of the Maltese Constitution. The State was ordered to pay €17,000 within one month and was burdened with all legal costs.
Lawyers Roberto Spiteri and Roberto Montalto appeared for Zahra.
Source: Times of Malta