Gibraltar Corruption

Is there still Rule of Law in Gibraltar? Is there corruption in the local police?

Are employees' Human Rights protected? Is there a mafia in Gibraltar?

How corrupt are the Courts in Gibraltar? Is Entain a bad employer?

Is the Registrar of the Court of Appeal sabotaging my court case?

First of all, it has to be pointed out that the Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Mr Karl Tonna, is as well the Registrar of the Supreme Court in Gibraltar. Appeals from the Supreme Court go to the Court of Appeal. Mr Tonna as well occasionally acts as a Puisne Judge in the Supreme Court. This combination of positions in a single person creates a number of conflicts of interest. For instance, the Registrar decides who can get Legal Aid or not. He can also decide to appoint a lawyer, or not, to a person qualifying for Legal Aid. The Registrar can as well decide at what speed he processes applications and notices of motion with requests to the courts. This makes that Mr Tonna has, in theory, the possibility to influence the flow of court cases significantly: he can make them, or break them.

The issue to be discussed here is if the Registrar is trying to sabotage my latest appeal after a similar question arose earlier: did the Registrar sabotage the transcript of the Employment Tribunal hearing? The absence of this transcript made me lose my second appeal in the Supreme Court.

About potential sabotage of my appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council: on 17 December 2024, the day after I received the judgment from the Court of Appeal (16 December 2024), I filed an application to the Registrar of the Court, Karl Tonna, for Legal Aid, which is called Legal Assistance for civil claims. It took till 7 March 2025 to get a final reply, almost 3 MONTHS later, while the deadline for filing an appeal with the Privy Council is 3 WEEKS.

In the past 7 years, on 3 previous occasions when I applied for, and got, Legal Assistance, a full report was given to me explaining the reasons why Legal Assistance was granted. On this occasion, NO REASONS at all were given to me why Legal Assistance was REFUSED. As my appeal to the Privy Council would be, for the first time, an appeal to a fully independent court in the UK, where Gibraltar's powers have no influence, it could be that someone has decided that my appeal had to be torpedoed. If nothing unsavoury has happened in the local courts, then there is no reason to torpedo my appeal, so why does it look like my appeal is being made impossible? I can appeal against the Registrar's decision, but how does one appeal against a decision when the reasons for this decision are not communicated? Does this not look like an attempt to make my appeal more difficult as I continue as a litigant in person without legal experience in this kind of things?

The present status of my Legal Assistance application is that I appealed the Registrar's incomprehensible decision to refuse Legal Assistance. This appeal will be decided by Chief Justice Anthony Dudley after I sent him a Formal Letter to the Chief Justice on 20 March 2025.

The email conversation below between the Registrar and I about my Legal Assistance request is Kafkaesque:

Dear Mr Van Thienen,

You will have been informed that:

a) The correct process for appealing a decision of the Registrar or Deputy is by way of a letter to the Court, and no fee is payable.
b) Your Notice, which is not required as per (a) above, was incorrect in any event, as it refers to a decision of the Registrar when, in fact, you are seeking to appeal a decision of the Deputy Registrar.

These clarifications were provided to assist you, as was the suggestion that you particularise the reasons for your appeal, given that such appeals are typically determined on the papers. The points you have set out below are precisely those you may wish to include in your appeal. Presumably, you do not consider your intended appeal to the Privy Council to be without merit and believe you have reasonable grounds—this has already been addressed by the Deputy Registrar. If so, you may wish to articulate your arguments accordingly. However, this remains a matter for you.

If you still wish to submit the documents you presented earlier, you are welcome to return them to the Registry, and they will be provided to the Chief Justice.

Best wishes

Karl Tonna

From: Bart Van Thienen
Sent: 19 March 2025 11:21
To: (JUD) Tonna, Karl
; (GCS) Turnock, Maurice
Cc: (GCS) McComb, Melissa
Subject: Re: Legal Assistance No 145/2024 Dear Mr Tonna,

I have presented myself twice this morning at the Court's counter, as per the instructions of Mr Maurice Turnock in the email exchange below re the refusal to award me Legal Assistance. I presented three copies of my Notice of Appeal and a letter addressed to you to waive the fees re this appeal. To my astonishment, all papers were returned to me as "they were not necessary".

I have now been asked to write a letter with my grounds of appeal. First of all, I do not know to whom I have to address this letter. Secondly, I simply cannot write this letter as the Registry refuses to give me the detailed reasons for the refusal and refuses to give me a copy of the reporting officer's report. I cannot appeal a decision without knowing what the decision is based on, beside a few very vague statements which tell me nothing.

You yourself wrote about this issue: "any concerns regarding the sufficiency of reasons or the reporting officer’s report may be pursued through the appropriate appellate process." But when I follow the steps of the appellate process, the papers are handed back to me...

As I have warned several times over the last few months, I am leaving Gibraltar till mid-April with limited access to the internet. I leave early on Friday morning and these arrangements cannot be changed. I remind you too that I am suffering from depression and anxiety and the present situation with the appeal against the Registry's refusal is starting to affect me.

I look forward to your clarifications,

Bart Van Thienen

From: (JUD) Tonna, Karl
Sent: 07 March 2025 11:59
To: 'Bart Van Thienen'; (GCS) Turnock, Maurice
Cc: (GCS) McComb, Melissa
Subject: RE: Legal Assistance No 145/2024
(JUD) Tonna,
You;
(GCS) Turnock, Maurice
(GCS) McComb, Melissa
Dear Mr Van Thienen,

Mr Turnock is acting within his authority as Deputy Registrar and therefore in my stead in this matter. I do not constitute an appellate body in relation to his functions and therefore have no jurisdiction to review, overturn, or compel the provision of further reasons. If you remain dissatisfied, any concerns regarding the sufficiency of reasons or the reporting officer’s report may be pursued through the appropriate appellate process.

I trust this is of assistance.

Best wishes

Karl Tonna
Registrar
Supreme Court
277 Main Street
Gibraltar
(+350) 200 75608

From: Bart Van Thienen
Sent: 07 March 2025 10:24
To: (GCS) Turnock, Maurice
Cc: (JUD) Tonna; (GCS) McComb,
Subject: Re: Legal Assistance No 145/2024
Dear Mr Tonna,

Can you please read the communications below. Mr Turnock refuses to answer my questions and to give me a detailed explanation of his reasons for refusing Legal Assistance. He as well refuses to send me the full report of the reporting officer.

Please, can you act on this?

Thank you and kind regards,

Bart Van Thienen

From: (GCS) Turnock, Maurice
Sent: 07 March 2025 10:01
To: bartvanthienen@***********
Cc: (JUD) Tonna; (GCS) McComb,
Subject: Re: Legal Assistance No 145/2024
Dear Mr Bart Van Thienen

I write further to your email below. Unfortunately due to unexpected personal matter I have been unable to reply earlier.

Let me reassure you that you can appeal my decision as of right. That means that you can file with the Supreme Court Registry a Notice of Appeal together with a letter setting out your appeal against my decision refusing to grant you a Legal Assistance Certificate.

As I previously informed you I found that the application was not one which it was proper for legal assistance to be given. After reading the application and considering the reporting solicitor's report and after reading the judgment of the Court of Appeal decision, I found that you had not shown that you had reasonable grounds for taking proceedings before the Privy Council. It is on that basis that legal assistance was refused.

Please note that I am not in the office today and possibly will not be next week, therefore if you require any assistance, please contact the Registrar who is reading in copy.

Best regards

Maurice

From: Bart Van Thienen
Sent: 28 February 2025 14:09
To: (GCS) Turnock, Maurice; (JUD) Tonna,
Subject: Re: Legal Assistance No 145/2024
Dear Mr Turnock,

I noticed that you, in your reply to me, omitted to answer my question: "Re your refusal to grant me Legal Assistance, can you expand, with as much details as possible, what your reasons are to refuse it?"

There can be no doubt that I will appeal your negative decision to the Supreme Court, but I do not know at all what your arguments are for your refusal to award me Legal Assistance. For instance, you refer to the judgment of Judge Rimer J.A. But you do not specify which parts of the judgement you base your decision on. You also claim to have read my applications, I handed in two, but you do not explain what you made of my analysis, keeping in mind that I am a litigant in person who has proven repeatedly to be incapable of making a profound legal analysis.

To start my appeal against your decision, I need to know what exactly I am appealing against. I believe that a very expanded explanation of your reasons to turn down my application is part of the disclosure duty you have. A refusal to provide this, could indicate that your refusal of Legal Assistance is only an attempt to torpedo my appeal to the Privy Council, together with previous, but failed, attempts by the Registry to torpedo other appeals, which I have informed the relevant UK authorities about and which led to at least one intervention by the UK Government with the Chief Minister and Attorney General about my court case, which then led to that I finally got a transcript of the Tribunal final hearing on liability, which was previously, unconstitutionally, refused by the Registry. Not answering to my request of a very detailed explanation, would obviously raise very serious questions.

Thank you and kind regards,

Bart Van Thienen

From: (GCS) Turnock, Maurice
Sent: 28 February 2025 12:50
To: Bart Van Thienen; (JUD) Tonna,
Subject: RE: Legal Assistance No 145/2024
Dear Mr Bart Van Thienen
Thank you for your email. I can confirm that you can appeal as of right to the Supreme Court on my decision to refuse you the granting of a legal assistance certificate for you to be represented before the Privy Council on the grounds that the application is not one which would be proper for a legal assistance certificate to be granted. I am content to forward to you the solicitor’s report on the merits of your application.

Best regards

Maurice

From: Bart Van Thienen
Sent: 27 February 2025 12:50
To: (GCS) Turnock, Maurice; (JUD) Tonna,
Subject: Re: Legal Assistance No 145/2024
Dear Mr Turnock,

Re your refusal to grant me Legal Assistance, can you expand, with as much details as possible, what your reasons are to refuse it?

Is there a possibility to appeal your decision to refuse Legal Assistance and/or ask for a second opinion by another reporting officer? As a matter of fact, my appeal is as of right, so will happen anyway, with or without Legal Assistance, you seem to have overlooked this. I am asking for the possibility to appeal or get a second opinion because Mr Mahtani seems to be a bit of a crooked lawyer who has tried to bribe a witness in the past. I am also very surprised that Mr Mahtani never asked me for any extra documents like for instance my notice of appeal, memorandum of appeal and/or skeleton argument. I did offer him to provide those documents as they would have helped him without doubt to better understand the merits of my case. This is what the three other reporting officers did who dealt with my case in the past. That it took two months between my application for Legal Assistance and Mr Mahtani sending you his report, without doing a proper investigation, looks quite suspicious, I am afraid.

In the past, the Registrar, Mr Karl Tonna, has always sent me a copy of the reporting officer's report. I would appreciate that Mr Mahtani's report is sent to me too.

Thank you and kind regards,

Bart Van Thienen

From: (GCS) Turnock, Maurice
Sent: 24 February 2025 15:56
To: Bart Van Thienen; (JUD) Tonna,
Subject: RE: Legal Assistance No 145/2024
Dear Bart Van Thienen

After reading the judgment of Rimer J.A., and considering your Legal Assistance application form with the attachment together with an email report from the reporting solicitor, I am persuaded that this application is not one which would be proper for a legal assistance certificate to be granted. In the circumstances I am refusing your application for legal assistance.

Best regards

Maurice

From: (GCS) Turnock, Maurice
Sent: 19 February 2025 13:35
To: Bart Van Thienen; (JUD) Tonna,
Subject: RE: Legal Assistance No 145/2024
Dear Mr Bart Van Thienen

Thank you for your email.

I will write again to Suresh Mathani requesting his report on the merits of your Application.

Best regards

Maurice

From: Bart Van Thienen
Sent: 19 February 2025 11:12
To: (JUD) Tonna,
Cc: (GCS) Turnock, Maurice
Subject: Re: Legal Assistance No 145/2024
Dear Mr Turnock,

By next week Wednesday 27th February 2028, I need to file an application for Leave to Appeal for case 2023/CACIV/005 with the Court of Appeal. More than two months ago, on 17th December 2024, I filed an application for Legal Assistance for this appeal and I spoke several times with Reporting Officer Mr Suresh Mahtani about my application. Unlike the three earlier Reporting Officers who have been dealing with my case over the last seven years, Mr Mahtani did not request any further documents of me, he is basing his analysis entirely on the Court's Judgement and my personal interpretation of it. Being a litigant in person, my interpretation will inevitably be flawed and incomplete.

It is my preference that a lawyer will deal with my case at the Privy Council, after on several occasions I was criticised by Judges that my Notices of Appeal and Memorandums of Appeal were too long, incomplete, not in the right format, etc. I might on this occasion have found a local lawyer willing to represent me, but I fear that this lawyer might become demotivated because this Legal Assistance application seems to go nowhere and time is running out. The deadline for the application for Leave to Appeal is only a week away.

This matter should be straightforward as it is an Appeal as of right according to the Court of Appeal Act 1969:
Appeal to Court of Appeal and to Her Majesty in Council.
22A. For the purposes of section 66(1)(b) of the Constitution, an appeal shall lie from decisions of the Supreme Court to the Court of Appeal and thence to Her Majesty in Council as of right in respect of all final decisions in any civil proceedings where the matter in dispute on the appeal is of a value of £50,000 or upwards or where the appeal involves, directly or indirectly, a claim to or a question respecting property or a right of a value of £50,000 or upwards.

The value of £50,000+ was already accepted during my appeal to the Court of Appeal and was not disputed by the other party. It seems therefore a pretty easy job for the Reporting Officer, so I do not understand why this is still going on while the deadline is very close.

Could you, please, be so kind to have a look into this matter of urgency?

Thank you and kind regards,

Bart Van Thienen

From: (JUD) Tonna,
Sent: 10 February 2025 10:38
To: 'Bart Van Thienen'
Cc: (GCS) Turnock, Maurice
Subject: RE: Legal Assistance No 145/2024
Dear Mr Van Thienen,

Mr Turnock has been dealing with your application and chased the reporting officer assiduously. You have since filed a new application last week on the basis of your conversations with Mr Mahtani. I am taking your new filing as a supplement to the original application, and not as a new one. This additional information is being sent to Mr Mahtani, who should receive it shortly. Please ensure to contact Mr Mahtani.

Best wishes

Karl Tonna

From: Bart Van Thienen
Sent: 10 February 2025 10:15
To: (JUD) Tonna,
Subject: Legal Assistance No 145/2024
Dear Mr Tonna,

On 17th December 2024, almost two months ago, I filed an application for Legal Assistance for an appeal at the Privy Council after the judgement for 2023/CACIV/005 was delivered by the Court of Appeal.

On 6th February 2025, a second judgement was delivered for this case, setting the deadlines for the next steps of my appeal. This was accompanied by the order which I need to file my appeal with the Privy Council.

I would appreciate that my application for Legal Assistance is being dealt with quickly from now on.

Thank you and kind regards,

Bart Van Thienen

From: Bart Van Thienen
Sent: 17 December 2024 15:19
To: (JUD) Tonna,
Subject: Re: 2023/CACIV/005
Dear Mr Tonna,

I handed in an application form for Legal Assistance and a copy of an affidavit at the Court's counter. I will appeal the Court of Appeal's decision in its entirety at the Privy Council.

As the Christmas holidays are very near, I would appreciate that my request is dealt with as a matter of urgency to prevent unnecessary delays. At present I do not have a lawyer representing me, but it is possible that this time I might find one who would want to represent me. Again, the Christmas holidays and people's absence from work might complicate this but I will keep you informed once I have an update on this matter.

Kind regards,

Bart Van Thienen

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