The protest was filed in court against Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina and the Director of Social Security by the

former servicemen’s collective legal representative, Edward Zammit Lewis.

In the protest, the complainants said they had never failed to pay their national insurance contributions, and they should therefore be entitled to a full pension.

Following the filing of the protest, Dr Zammit Lewis briefed the media outside the law courts. He said the complainants’ pensions were taken from the British government funds after the British left Malta in 1979. He

said: “Now they are older than 61 and are entitled to their Maltese pension.” However, the sum they received from the British government was deducted from the Maltese pension, he said. Dr Zammit Lewis said this state of affairs was tantamount to a breach of the complainants’ fundamental rights. He said that if the situation was not resolved through the protest, the ex-servicemen were ready to take the matter to the Constitutional Court. They claim that another 220 former servicemen will also be on their side. He said that apart from breaching the complainants’ fundamental human rights, the matter was a case of discrimination.