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Matthew Vella
Eight years since it was first initiated by a Labour government, MP Helena Dalli says the “watered down” Domestic Violence Act still contains an anomalous loophole.
The new law against domestic violence will allow victims to stay proceedings against their alleged aggressors if they so ask, a provision which Dalli, who authored the first version of the law back in 1998, does not agree with.
“It is basically a glitch which allows victims caving in to pressure from their aggressors, to stop the proceedings. In no way do criminal proceedings ever stop, irrespective of what a victim asks.”
On Friday, Ministers Dolores Cristina and Tonio Borg announced the coming into force of the new law. Family and Social Solidarity minister Cristina said victims could stop proceedings after these had started, however it would be the Court to see that such a decision is indeed borne out of their free will, and not the result of “immoral pressure”.
Dalli however says there is no reason to stop the proceedings, anyway. “A judge may take note of a victim asking for a stay in proceedings, and take this into account in the sentence. But the judge should still be allowed to carry out the proceedings and later assess the accused according to the submissions. There is no need to stop proceedings.”
Dalli claims it was parliamentary secretary Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici who said during the bill’s committee stage, that the reason behind the provision was that the government “did not want broken families”.
“We spent long sittings on this issue. I think a broken family will still remain a broken family, just a hollow shell,” Dalli told MaltaToday.
The new law, hailed by Tonio Borg as a an important step in the history of Maltese law and society, offers a wider definition of the victim, which includes children, the elderly and also others who may not necessarily be relatives but living within a household.
Victims will no longer need to present an application for police to investigate an allegation of domestic violence, but police will also proceed on reports by neighbours.
The law also includes two new crimes: harassment, and threats which may not include actual acts of violence, but which still create a fear in a person that violence may be imminent.
The Criminal Court will also be empowered to protect victims throughout the criminal proceedings. The Court will also be allowed to order a person to stay from the workplace or where the victim lives. Even throughout civil cases at the Family Court, a judge may order protective measures if any issue of domestic violence crops up at the start or later on throughout a case.
The special section in the Family Court dealing with criminal cases has so far delivered its verdict on 1,081 – eight per cent of the cases involved slight injuries, and 18 per cent involved cases of threats.
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
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