Malta Government’s legal reforms should serve justice, not impunity

The Prime Minister has declared that public officers will be protected from prosecution and that the Government will instead take responsibility for the actions its officials take in their line of duty. The proposal to shield public servants from prosecution in their personal capacity would invert a 170-year old legal culture and effectively reward crime committed in office by those whose duty is to prevent it. Since 1854, the Criminal Code has provided for a penalty of a higher degree when a crime is committed by a public servant because of the public servants’ role as the guardian of the public interest.

The Prime Minister has claimed magisterial inquiries are leading to people facing the “calvary” of court proceedings and then found to be innocent, and the Justice Minister has attempted to table a draft law to amend the Criminal Code. Yet, Robert Abela’s claim is manifestly false as magisterial inquiries over the past decade have all independently concluded with recommendations for criminal action.

Malta’s Criminal Code empowers magistrates to initiate an inquiry on receipt of a report of a criminal offence whose penalty is a prison term of more than three years. As the law stands today, it implicitly allows a citizen to file a criminal complaint in court that can lead to a magisterial inquiry to preserve evidence of crime. Removing citizens’ right to request a magisterial inquiry - as the Government has implied its new proposed law will do - would eliminate the only tool that allows us to pursue accountability when State systems fail to do so.

Malta’s first ever prosecutions of high level corruption - in the fraudulent Vitals/Steward hospitals privatisation deal and, shortly, in the case involving the offshore company, 17 Black, owned by Yorgen Fenech - stem from magisterial inquiries triggered when individuals filed a criminal complaint in court. Criminal complaints filed by individuals have triggered the opening of magisterial inquiries involving suspected high-level corruption or financial crime, including the Vitals/Steward case, the offshore companies 17 Black and Macbridge; Panama Papers; Electrogas power station; and the wind farm in Mozura, Montenegro.

Legal reforms are necessary because the current systems are inefficient, but reform must serve justice and enforce accountability for the abuse of power, and not shore up the state of impunity that enabled Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination.