Court expert’s overdue report kept Nigerians in detention for too long

A civil court of constitutional jurisdiction declared that the protracted detention of a Nigerian national in prison, who claimed he had no money to post €6,000 bail, was in breach of his fundamental human rights.

Judge Anthony Ellul said Osita Anagboso Obi, who was granted bail in May 2011, should not be kept in custody any longer simply because he had no financial assets in Malta that allowed him to post bail. Obi and Austin Eze, another Nigerian, were remanded in custody after pleading not guilty to charges of money laundering when Obi was apprehended with €31,000 at Malta International Airport as he departed for Germany. Eze was accused of complicity.

Judge Ellul said the court expert appointed back in July 2010 to extract information from the accused's seized laptops and mobile phones, had only presented his report over a year later, in August 2011.

"On reading the report, the court has no doubt that its compilation should not have taken more than a few weeks. In the documents attached to the report it results that the information from the mobile phones was extracted in July 2011, which confirms the concern expressed by the court...

"During the 16 months from date of arraignment all the prosecution's evidence was heard, with the exception of the evidence which has been requested from abroad."

However it turns out that the prosecution's request for information on the two Nigerians from the UK was also made on 28 September 2011 - 18 months after their arraignment.

Judge Ellul remarked that this was too long to wait for such information from an EU member state, and said that there was no evidence that the Office of the Attorney General tried to expedite matters.

"Local authorities... have a positive obligation to pursue the matter in reasonable manner, more so where a person is in pre-trial detention, is a foreigner and not resident in Malta. The court would have expected that through Eurojust, which serves as a go-between for the transmission of rogatory letters, such matters are dealt with swiftly and expeditiously."

The court ordered that bail conditions for Obi do not include a deposit of money, but turned down his claim that his right to a fair trial within a reasonable time had been breached.

Instead Ellul ordered the Court of Magistrates to establish what measures were taken by the Attorney General to see that matters are expedited when asking for information from foreign authorities.

Obi and Austin Eze, two Nigerian nationals resident in Germany and Birkirkara respectively, were arrested on 11 March, 2010 and accused money laundering charges when they failed to declare €31,000 to Customs at the airport when departing from Malta. The two pleaded not guilty and were remanded in custody. Obi claimed he was acting as a courier for which he would be paid just €500 for his service.

On 2 May, 2011 they were granted bail under condition of a €10,000 deposit as well as another guarantee of €10,000, later reduced to €6,000 following two separate requests to the courts to reduce the bail deposit.

The Attorney General objected to the third request to reduce the sum further, claiming Obi was availing himself of the services of a private lawyer, and could procure the finance necessary from his family in Germany.

But the court said that it felt the repercussions which the accused would face if he absconds from Malta while pending trial, served as a more effective safeguard than the deposit of €6,000. "This more so in view of the fact that he has strong family ties in Germany where he has lived for many year, has a partner and two children... if the complainant decides to leave Malta in breach of bail conditions, a European Arrest Warrant will be issued and he will be brought back to Malta."

The court said that denying Obi's release under these circumstances was tantamount to denying him release, and therefore in breach of the European Convention's right to a fair trial.