Mother files constitutional case against minister and Attorney General

A constitutional case was filed yesterday against Minister for Family, Children’s Rights, and Social Solidarity Michael Falzon and Attorney General Peter Grech by a mother who had two of her children taken away from her.

The applicant claims she had been denied the right to a fair trial, which is enshrined in the Constitution of Malta and the European Convention on Human Rights, after a protection order was issued on 30 June for two children, aged three and five, to be taken from her care.

The following month, on 21 July, the mother registered her objections but on 10 August a Magistrate’s court rejected them, leading her to bring the matter before the Constitutional Court.

The mother has argued that the law had obliged the minister, or a formal delegate of the minister, to hold a disposition hearing before her children were taken away. This had not been done and as such, she argues, her right to a fair trial had been denied.

Lawyers Charlon Gouder, David Camilleri, and Joseph Gatt are representing the applicant.