Degiorgio brothers claim rights breach after prison leave denial

Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, who are currently serving 40-year prison sentences for carrying out the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia are eyeing constitutional proceedings, claiming to have been denied prison leave to attend a family member’s funeral, without explanation.

This emerges from a judicial protest filed on Wednesday, in which the convicted killers claim to have suffered breaches to their fundamental rights to protection from inhuman and degrading treatment, to a fair hearing and protection from discrimination.

“The reasons for the refusal by the Agency and/or the Ministry literally disappeared under a veil of silence and secrecy…where the final outcome always remained a refusal but with no form of explanation, declaration or position in writing.”

The two convicted hitmen filed a judicial protest against the Correctional Services Agency CEO and the Minister for Home Affairs, Security, Reforms and Equality, in which they argue that the CSA’s duty to ensure inmates’ human rights are protected is as important as that of ensuring that court-imposed prison sentences are properly executed.

“It is pointless to say, or rather boast, that the Republic of Malta is a democratic country where the rule of law reigns, unobstructed. If anything, and this specifically due to the behaviour of the CSA’s CEO, supported by the Ministry…in many cases, the rule of law only applies when the law runs parallel to political interests, regardless of precedent or the principle of impartiality in both law and justice.”

In the judicial protest, lawyer George Camilleri, representing the brothers, stressed that the point was not that his clients “were expecting their every request for prison leave be granted,” but that that the criteria applicable to such a request were established by law, which implied that reasons must be provided in order for any decision to deny a request to be legal.

The respondents were applying “an abusive, degrading and illegal” policy in breach of the Degiorgios’ rights, argued the lawyer, slamming what he termed “the institutionalised culture of silence and the autocratic and degrading attitude” of the respondents. The law gave neither the CSA nor the Ministry any discretion to ignore the Degiorgio brothers’ request without giving a reason, the protest states.