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Less than a month ago, the media was awash with letters from readers who expressed puzzlement and shock over the suspended sentence to a self-confessed man guilty of a violent indecent sexual assault on a young woman. It transpired that this man is fostering a young girl prior to adoption and asked for a ban on the publication of his name on this score. His request was acceded to by the same court.
Rightly enough, public opinion is scandalised and nonplussed.
This being Malta, this issue has been, as it were, swept under the carpet. In political circles, discussion revolved round other, more recent, scandals involving corruption in the public sector. In the public forum at large, the World Cup alienates mass public opinion.
The debate about the loophole relating to suspended sentences by the courts must, however be addressed – and the sooner, the better.
There have been far too many cases where the Courts made an ass of the law by delivering suspended sentences in circumstance which call for explanation.
Not so long ago, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono went out of his way to remark that there is a case for greater sensitivity and attention by the courts, not to give the impression that they were not responding to society’s imperative need to be protected from rising crime.
Earlier still, an appeals court ruled that suspended jail terms were not being applied in a satisfactory manner by the Magistrates’ Courts.
Family and Social Solidarity Minster Dolores Cristina has also gone on record with the opinion that some court decisions did not reflect the law. She stressed that it is almost pointless having legislation “unless it is interpreted well and in a strong manner”
This is by no means the first time that the arcane art of dispensing with suspended sentences, as exercised by the courts mystified public opinion.
I raised the matter in Parliament several times. Mine was a voice in the wilderness. The door was, and continues to remain, open to curious, perhaps capricious, decisions that boggle the mind.
Our Constitution provides for a Commission for the Administration of Justice, empowered, inter alia, to advise on all matters related to the organisation and administration of the judicial system.
Isn’t it high time for the Commission to take the initiative and intervene for justice’s sake?
The Commission may perhaps also reflect and pronounce itself on yet another flagrant case of official disregard of the laws of Malta, relating to the environment.
The relevant authorities seem to have closed their eyes and issued permits for a number of rave parties held in bird sanctuaries such as the Bosketto Gardens. To compound the outrage, they did so during the mating season.
I raised the matter in Parliament and drew the attention of the authorities in the press.
Nobody batted an eyelid. Environmental NGOs have been conspicuous by their silence. The Government continued to do its own thing, presumably comforted in its high-handedness by its five-seat parliamentary majority. And the media, whose role is that of watchdog of the public interest, has been looking the other way, possibly distracted by other issues.
Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law and those who administer it.
In the words of Aristotle, good laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.
Justice abused is democracy betrayed.
Adrian Vassallo MD, MP
Ta’ Xbiex
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