Kidney patient behind bars turns to President for justice

A prisoner whose kidney condition is rapidly deteriorating while behind bars has asked President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca to grant him bail while he waits for an appeal about his case to be heard by the courts.
The request cites a rarely-used section of Malta's criminal code, which allows the president to grant a person bail in "special cases", subject to any conditions the president wishes to impose.
It also highlights the problem with having an attorney general who is both public prosecutor and legal advisor to the state, noting that should the president seek legal advice on the matter, she would have to get it from the office which had prosecuted the case in the first place. 
Christopher Bartolo, 36, was sentenced to a five-year jail sentence in April on cannabis trafficking charges. He was caught with 167 grams of the drug and arrested right after spending six hours hooked up to a dialysis machine at hospital. 

Mr Bartolo suffers from failing kidneys and received a kidney transplant some years ago. He has said that he used cannabis to self-medicate, with the plant easing his pain and allowing him to sleep more effectively than pills prescribed to him. 
Police...