Court to decide if Attorney General breached man’s rights

The discretionary powers of the Attorney General have been placed under judicial scrutiny after a convicted arsonist claimed that the exercise of those powers breached his fundamental right to a fair trial.

A court upheld the man’s request for his claim, which includes discrimination, to be referred to a constitutional court.

The issue came up in the course of proceedings over an appeal filed by Martin Marco Baldacchino, assisted by lawyer Franco Debono, against a jail term of four years and six months handed down by the Criminal Court in 2016.

The self-confessed arsonist and reformed drug addict had set fire to the door of a house in Main Street, Qormi, in August 2011. He was caught red-handed, by an off-duty police constable, throwing a petrol-doused T-shirt next to the front door of the residence.

The man subsequently admitted that he had committed the act “for a shot of heroin”.

Following that admission, the man’s defence team and the prosecution traded arguments before the Criminal Court about the degree of punishment.

The defence pointed out that an attempt at plea bargaining had failed because the AG had refused to accept the accused’s admission to the lesser crime of...