A man who in September 2005 had been charged for his involvement in the importation of around seven kilograms of heroin yesterday filed an application in court claiming his human rights were being breached because he cannot be tried twice for the same crime.

Two months after Joseph Lebrun’s arraignment, the Court of Magistrates’ ruled that there was not enough prima facie evidence for a bill of indictment to be issued against him and he was cleared of all the charges brought against him.

In December, the attorney general filed an application for an arrest warrant for Mr Lebrun to be re-arrested and this application was upheld.

On the basis of this development, Mr Lebrun filed a constitutional application before the First Hall of the Civil Court claiming his right to a fair hearing had been breached by the AG’s actions.

In June 2006, the court ruled that Mr Lebrun’s right had not been breached.

As a result of this judgement, Mr Lebrun continued his legal battle in the Constitutional Court which, in February this year, ruled that the article on the strength of which the AG filed the application for an arrest warrant was likely to breach a person’s right to a fair hearing.

Mr Lebrun’s case continued before the Court of Magistrates which now ruled that there were sufficient grounds for a bill of indictment to be issued against the accused.

Mr Lebrun is now claiming that since in November 2005, the court had declared that there were no grounds for indictment and now reversed its decision saying there were sufficient grounds, his human right not to be tried twice for the same crime had been breached.

Dr Jose Herrera, Dr Joseph Giglio and Dr Franco Debono are representing Mr Lebrun.