Accused asks court to terminate his overdue case

The use of recordings of police statements as a means of voice recognition for phone intercepts were challenged in a constitutional application filed by Joseph Lebrun, who stands charged with association for the trafficking of heroin in 2005.

In his application, the accused argued that at the time the law did not give him a right for legal aid at interrogation stage.

Deprived of legal advice he had given statements which were recorded by the police. The prosecution presented these recordings as a means of identifying his voice on phone intercepts. The Malta Security Services (MSS) claimed that the voice on their phone recordings was of the accused.

Lebrun asked the court to ban the use of the recordings for the purpose of voice recognition. This would further prejudice his case as he was not aware the statements would be used for voice comparisons.

He said if the court rejected the application, his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution of Malta would be undermined.

The accused also filed a separate application calling on the court to terminate the proceedings against him. Lebrun was arraigned on 6 September 2005. No new evidence has been filed since.

He said this was a breach of his human rights, which state that a man should be given a fair trial within a reasonable time.

Both applications were signed by lawyers Franco Debono and Veronique Dalli.