A 44-year-old man is seeking a presidential pardon after ending up behind bars due to a judicial technicality. Gaetano Gatt was sentenced to two months imprisonment by a Court of Appeals on Thursday for not paying his estranged wife child support. According to law, if the money owed is paid in the interim, the prison sentence may be converted to a fine. However, the rule of law also states that, once a judgment is delivered in open court, that judgment cannot be rescinded. A few seconds after Madam Justice Edwina Grima read out the sentence, confirming that which had been handed out by a previous court, Mr Gatt informed the court that he had the money on his person. However, since the judgment had already been delivered, he had to be taken to prison. His ex-wife, Carol, confirmed with this newspaper that Mr Gatt had paid her the €300 she was due. She explained that she has been separated from Mr Gatt, with whom she has three children, since 2009. Since two of their children are now adults, Ms Gatt is owed €20 a week in child support for their 12-year-old daughter. "We have already been treading the court floorboards for the past five years. "He never paid up and still owes me...
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