The criminal court yesterday turned down the Attorney General’s request for a man to be re-arrested because he had breached his bail conditions after it heard that the Attorney General had not been informed within one working day that he had been granted bail again.

On 6 June 2005, Philip Camilleri had been charged with theft of more than Lm1,000 and with damaging property. On the day of his arraignment, the prosecution had opposed to the defendant’s request for bail since there was a risk that the prosecution’s witnesses could have been influenced by the defendant.

On 9 June 2005, Mr Camilleri filed an application requesting bail and on 15 June 2005 the court of magistrates upheld this request against a deposit of Lm100 and a personal guarantee of Lm300. Mr Camilleri was ordered to sign at the Zebbug police station on a daily basis. He was also ordered to remain home between 11pm and 7am.

On 9 December 2005, the Police Commissioner filed an application in court requesting the man’s re-arrest since he had not signed at the police station and had been caught outside his house after 11pm on two occasions.

The court ruled that Mr Camilleri had breached his bail conditions and bail was revoked. He was remanded in custody.

On 19 April 2006, the prosecution declared that it did not have any more evidence and in view of this, the following day, Mr Camilleri filed an application requesting bail but the prosecution opposed, saying that a defendant cannot be granted bail twice according to law. However, on 28 April, the court of magistrates upheld Mr Camilleri’s request and he was granted bail.

During a court hearing on 25 May, the prosecuting officer was informed that Mr Camilleri had been granted bail again and subsequently, the Attorney General filed an application for the revocation of bail and requested the court to order the man’s re-arrest.

The court heard Mr Camilleri’s defence counsel saying that his client cannot be re-arrested because of a procedural mistake.

Handing down his judgement, Mr Justice David Scicluna said that the law was clear about bail: the Attorney General must be informed about the granting of bail within one working day. He said this did not happen in this case.

Mr Justice Scicluna said that the court of magistrates decided to grant bail on 28 April because there were no “relevant and sufficient reasons to justify the defendant’s continued detention”. Moreover, he said, the magistrate’s decision to grant bail was justified since the defendant had asked Caritas to help him with his problems.

Mr Justice Scicluna therefore turned down the Attorney General’s request for the man’s re-arrest and ordered the court of magistrates to provide Mr Camilleri with a copy of his bail conditions which should also be explained clearly to him. He also ordered Mr Camilleri to inform the court of the exact address of his residence.