The First Hall Civil Court (Constitutional Jurisdiction) ordered the Attorney General and Police Commissioner to pay Noel Xuereb the sum of €100,000 in damages, after deciding that the criminal proceedings against him, which ended up in him being declared not guilty of all the charges brought against him, took an unreasonable amount of time to be concluded. This judgment is considered a landmark judgment when one takes into consideration the amount of compensation granted by the Court.
Noel Xuereb filed for Constitutional redress against the Attorney General and Police Commissioner, claiming that his right to a fair hearing was breached due to an unreasonable amount of time which the proceedings took. The criminal proceedings against the applicant were instituted by the Police on the 24th January 2007 and a judgement was given by the Court of Magistrates (Malta) as a Court of Criminal Jurisdiction on the 1st April 2019.
Judge Anna Felice in judgement decided in favour of Xuereb.
Dr Joseph Giglio and Dr Sarah Mifsud appeared for Noel Xuereb.