Daniel Holmes’ parents flag discrepancies in son’s arrest, trial

Welshman Daniel Holmes, imprisoned for 11 years and fined €23,000 for marijuana cultivation, may have been treated using different criteria than other suspects charged with analogous crimes.

On the eve of the final appeal in this case, his father Mel Holmes has pointed towards a number of inconsistencies in the way the case was handled by both prosecution and defence.

Among the issues raised is the fact that the indictment was filed late, without any extension requested by the office of the prosecution: an error than normally results in a mistrial, but which in this case was overlooked by the courts.

Daniel Holmes was also denied a lawyer at all stages of interrogation - but while other (mostly local) suspected drug traffickers have had their charged dropped as a result of this human rights violation, the lack of legal assistance had no bearing on the sentence in this particular case.

Separately, Mel Holmes also points towards the 2008 prison suicide of Barry Lee - a UK national imprisoned over the same offence - and points towards a possible cover-up of the circumstances leading to his death. Holmes' questions why the UK coroner was not allowed access to information regarding this case, which to date has never been conclusively investigated.

In a letter to the media, Mel Holmes asks five questions concerning these and other discrepancies.

1 Legal assistance denied

"Daniel's statement, used by the police to get him indicted, was compiled from three separate interrogation sessions during which he was denied a lawyer with the phrase, "Get real, this is not TV"," Mel Holmes said. "We have asked every lawyer to tackle this point - none did!"

Referring to the case of Alvin Pritivera - whose conviction for drug trafficking was overturned by the court of appeal, over lack of legal assistance - and also Joseph Saliba, who received a suspended sentence over the same changes (i.e., cultivation), Mel Holmes demands to know why his son was not acquitted on the same grounds.

2 Indictment filed late

"On 13 September 2006 the Attorney General asked for a 15 day extension as the time to file the indictment had expired," Mel Holmes said. "Such extension was never granted, but the case proceeded anyway. Later Daniel was asked to sign a waiver without being told what it was. He refused anyway, as his lawyer was not present to explain it. We found out later what they had tried to get him to sign. Again, no lawyer has pressed this point.

Why did the case proceed, when the AG had failed to respect Daniel's rights to a fair trial in a reasonable time-frame? 

3 Confiscated property never returned

"On 07 March 2008 the Magistrate, Dr Edwina Grima ordered the police to return some of Daniel's property to him by 20 May 2008.  This was never done. We questioned it many times. Why have the police responsible in the case not been charged with contempt of court?

4 Holmes denied chance to defend himself

"Daniel asked every lawyer (Dr Said, Dr Galea, Dr K Mompalao, Dr K Grima) to enable him to make a fresh legal statement. On 8 January 2009, as he still had never been asked to take the stand in his defence, Daniel sent a written statement to Dr Grima asking that either he be allowed to take the stand and answer the allegations against him or this statement should be submitted to the court. Daniel and I have asked Dr Grima to put us on the stand in order to demonstrate his reformed nature.

Neither was ever done. Mel Holmes questions why the accused was never allowed to testify in his own case.

5 Prison suicide covered up

Lastly, Holmes raises questions over the apparently uninvestigated suicide, in an isolation cell in Coradino's notorious Division Six, of Barry Lee: imprisoned over the same charges of cultivation along with Daniel Holmes.

"Unfortunately, Barry Lee did not get the level of support we were able to give our son, and subsequently demonstrated the CCF's ineptitude in this matter by, allegedly, taking his own life," Mel Holmes said. "Why was the UK coroner's office denied access to any information about his death, and denied the courtesy of being allowed to come to Malta to investigate for themselves?"

A final ruling in Daniel Holmes' appeal is expected Thursday, 31 October.