Missing statement gets man off cocaine charge

A man sentenced to six months in jail by the court of Magistrates has been acquitted of possession and trafficking of a gram of cocaine on appeal, after the judge observed that an important police statement was absent from the acts of the case.

The case dates back to a party at Gianpula on 28 June 2008 where the police arrested Letizia and Louise Sultana in the car park as they were about to consume cocaine. Sultana had told the police that the drug had been given to her by her boyfriend Daniel Gatt, 18 at the time.

When interrogated, Gatt said that he had gone to the party with his friends and had been looking for his girlfriend but couldn’t find her. When she called him and told him where she was, he went and was arrested. He had admitted to the police to having bought a gram of cocaine for €70, in the presence of his girlfriend when they were at Numero Uno, with the intention of taking it with her.

Gatt had been found guilty of trafficking by sharing, receiving a fine of €750 and a six-month jail sentence.

He subsequently appealed the judgment.

In his judgment on the matter judge Giovanni Grixti, presiding the Court of Criminal Appeal observed that the only evidence against the man was his police statement and the testimony of his girlfriend. These alone should have never led to trafficking charges, said the judge.

The first court had asked who had gone to purchase the drugs and it had been established that the accused, his girlfriend and a friend had gone to buy it and all had paid their share.

This meant that not even the elements of trafficking by sharing emerged from the evidence said the court.

The judge said that what emerged was potentially only simple possession of a third of a gram of cocaine.

Sultana’s police statement was absent from the acts of the proceedings, despite it having been read out to her. Although this fact was not raised by Gatt, the court said it could not ignore such a glaring error.

“This is a court of criminal competence where the evidence must be preserved meticulously and according to law, but it is above all a court of Justice and consequently doesn’t see how it should proceed to deny an appeal even if this deals with an examination about possession of a third of a gram of cocaine.”

Gatt was acquitted of all charges.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri appeared for Gatt.