The family of a Gozitan man jailed at the end of last month for cannabis trafficking has been upset by inaccurate press reports on the case appearing both on the morning a trial by jury was due to start, as well as television news bulletins aired the same evening.
The family points to the fact that the gravity of the crime in question had been erroneously exaggerated in the printed media on the morning a jury was to begin hearing the case. They also allege that the neutrality of the jury itself could have been biased as a result had the accused not pleaded guilty as he did before the trial began.
On 27 March, Walter John Cassar from Xaghra, Gozo pleaded guilty to trafficking 3.5 kilograms of cannabis, valued at close to Lm4,000, in December 2003.
On the morning the plea was filed however, a newspaper report had connected the 29-year-old with separate cannabis finds in Nadur and Qala, Gozo that had yielded a total of 24 kilos of cannabis, 15 of which had been in the form of fresh leaves, worth a total of Lm100,000.
The report, according to the family, incorrectly linked the two cases, with the 24-kilo find being a far cry from the 3.5 kilos as itemised in the case’s bill of indictment against Mr Cassar.
Furthermore, in the evening after the presentation of charges, to which the defendant pleaded guilty, two television news reports had also erroneously stated that Mr Cassar had stood charged with trafficking amounts of cannabis worth Lm100,000, obviously confusing the total Gozitan drug find with what Mr Cassar had actually been charged with.
It was only after angry phone calls to the television stations by the family of the accused that the information was corrected on the stations’ final broadcasts of the night.
While in a separate case the police had uncovered some 24 kilos of cannabis, Mr Cassar had been charged with essentially playing the role of middleman, or courier, in another transaction.
He had been accused of collecting the cannabis from an individual in Xaghra, intending to deliver the consignment to the recipient, from whom he would also collect payment, and receive a percentage from the transaction in the process.
But while delivering the goods to the intended recipient, Mr Cassar had been stopped by the police, who found the 3.5 kilos of cannabis in boxes and bags in his car.
Mr Cassar received an eight-year prison sentence and an Lm8,000 fine for his role in the operation. In such cases, the court can impose a prison sentence of between four and 30 years and a fine of between Lm1,000 and Lm50,000, but, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono observed in his judgement, the case could very well have been heard by a magistrate thus avoiding unnecessary delays and extra court expenses.