The European Court of Human Rights last week awarded former Maltacom chairman Maurice Zarb Adami e7,752, holding that there had been a violation of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights, read in conjunction with Article 4 § 3 (d) (prohibition of slavery and forced labour) of the Convention.

Mr Zarb Adami, a pharmacist, was placed on the list of jurors in Malta from 1971 and remained on the list until at least 2002. Between 1971 and 1997 he served as both a juror and foreman in three different criminal proceedings.

In 1997 he was called again to serve as a juror, but failed to appear and was fined approximately e240.

As the applicant failed to pay the fine, he was summoned before the Criminal Court. He pleaded that the fine imposed on him was discriminatory in terms of Article 45 of the Constitution and Article 14 of the Convention, taken in conjunction with Article 4 § 3 (d), as other people in his position were not subjected to the burdens and duties of jury service and the law and/or the domestic practice exempted women from jury service, but not men.

His case was referred to the First Hall of the Civil Court, before which the applicant alleged that the Maltese system penalised men and favoured women; during the preceding five years only 3.05 per cent of women had served as jurors as opposed to 96.95 per cent of men.

Moreover, the burden of jury service was not equitably distributed; in 1997 the list of jurors represented only 3.4 per cent of the list of voters. On 5 February 1999 the First Hall of the Civil Court rejected the applicant’s claims.

He appealed, stressing that jury service was a burden, as jurors were regularly required to leave their work to attend court hearings. It also imposed a moral burden to judge the innocence or guilt of a person. His appeal was rejected.

In 2003, as a lecturer at the University of Malta, the applicant unsuccessfully sought exemption from jury service, under Article 604(1) of the Criminal Code (CC).

Having been summoned once again to serve as a juror in another trial, in 2004 the applicant requested exemption from jury service under Article 607 of the CC. His application was refused.

On 18 April 2005 the applicant again requested to be exempted from jury service, relying on Article 604 (1) of the CC, which provides an exemption for full-time lecturers at the University. On 25 April 2005 his request was accepted.

The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 22 April 2002.

Judgment was given by a Chamber of seven judges, composed as follows:

Nicolas Bratza (British), President,

Josep Casadevall (Andorran),

Kristaq Traja (Albanian),

Lech Garlicki (Polish),

Javier Borrego Borrego (Spanish),

Ljiljana Mijovi (citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina), judges and

Justice Joseph Filletti (Maltese), ad hoc judge.