Teacher’s five-year imprisonment: Minister reveals plans to remove 'draconian' law

Government will be recommending that the minimum five-year prison sentence in the case of drivers found guilty to have caused the death of at least one pedestrian and causing injuries to another be removed, leaving the minimum sentence at the discretion of the judiciary, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici revealed on Wednesday.

Social media came alive in protest since last Friday, after Doreen Camilleri, a 34-year-old schoolteacher who ran over two elderly people in Attard in 2011, causing the death of one of them and grievously injuring the other, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

She was jailed after being found guilty of the involuntary homicide of Alfred Zahra, 64 in May 2011 when she was driving along Mdina Road near Rabat on her way home from a day’s teaching at a school in Sta Venera, as well as of grievously injuring his sister, Carmela Zahra, 75 years old at the time.

Bonnici said he could not comment on Camilleri’s case or sentence, but said he felt that a five-year minimum sentence for such cases was ‘draconian’ and he was therefore presenting a note for the Opposition to consider with regards to repealing the minimum sentence.

“What we are proposing is that we retain the maximum ten-year prison sentence but completely remove the minimum, leaving it at the discretion of the judiciary,” he said.

“While we insist that harsh traffic regulations might be necessary to change the culture of drivers in Malta, we must also be fair.”

Bonnici was speaking in Parliament at the beginning of a debate on amendments to the Traffic Regulations Act, said that he hoped the proposed amendments would find the full backing of both sides of the House.

On Tuesday, Opposition MP Antoine Borg had referred to Camilleri’s case during Parliament’s adjournment and called for a revision of the law.