|
Over the past eleven years former Attorney General Anthony Borg Barthet used the powers given to him by the Constitution to stop seven court cases before their conclusion.
The first time was in 1993. On 30 November 1993, a court case in which the Police took action against a unknown person for the corruption of a minor and her illegal arrest, was stopped.
Replying to a Parliamentary Question this week Justice minister Tonio Borg told Evarist Bartolo the case involved a father's corruption of his daughter. Borg said: “The case rested on the evidence of the daughter that made a report to the police, but she later refused to give further evidence and claimed that what she told the police were all lies.”
In 1997 a case was stopped related to the arson of a property in Bormla where the evidence was given by two witnesses accusing an individual. The two later retracted their statements and the accused always claimed innocence.
On 25 May of 1999 the AG put a stop to a case of the corruption of a public official. Borg would not identify the accused who was prosecuted by the police. “The case suffered when files were burned in the court and essential evidence was destroyed. Beyond that, little progress was being made in the compilation of evidence because of the precarious state of health of the accused and the continual presentation of medical certificates,” Borg told Bartolo.
In another instance the AG put an end to a case involving libel and defamation. The court case came to an end on 6 April 2001. Borg told Bartolo the case included eight accusations, three of which were repeated and could not be successful because they were published as printed matter. Of the others, one was time barred and one was found not to be libellous. With regard to the other accusations it was not apparent there were grounds for a successful case and, besides that, corroboration of the accusations was missing.
One of the cases stopped on17 April 2000 and involved incidents at the airport and Borg said “the accused were granted a Presidential pardon and for that reason the Nolle Prosequi was applied.” That case clearly referred to incidents involving union officials.
The other case has been extensively reported in MaltaToday and involved the cessation of a case against a medical consultant for involuntary homicide. The victim was the seven-year-old Andrea Massa.
Borg told Bartolo that he did not think it would be prudent to mention the names of the accused.
|
