Attorney General says Holmes’ decision is just

Attorney General Peter Grech agrees with his predecessor’s decision to have first-time offender Daniel Holmes tried in the superior court. An appeals court last month upheld Mr Holmes’s 10-and-a-half-year sentence and €23,000 fine for cannabis offences. His father spoke out after Joseph Buttigieg, who was already serving 11 years for trafficking, was recently sentenced to three-and-a-half years and fined €3,000 for growing almost twice as much cannabis as Mr Holmes. “We really do not understand how the Attorney General can justify sending Daniel to the Criminal Court (the superior court) when the sentencing structures are so disparate. These cases should have been tried the other way around,” Mel Holmes said. The present Chief Justice, Silvio Camilleri, was Attorney General when Mr Holmes was arrested in 2006. He was succeeded by Dr Grech in 2010. Asked whether Mr Holmes, as a first-time offender, should have been tried in the inferior court, like Mr Buttigieg, the Attorney General replied: “Both decisions were proved right by the judgments eventually delivered by the respective courts. “Holmes received a sentence above the inferior court’s jurisdiction, while Buttigieg got...