[LISTEN] Justice Minister takes dig at Chief Justice over appeals court backlog

It is “absolutely unacceptable” that people have to wait three or four years to have their appeals cases appointed for hearing, the Justice Minister has said.

Owen Bonnici made the statement in Parliament on Wednesday as he took a dig at Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri on the meaning of ‘rule of law’. The Chief Justice presides the appeals court.

While noting that pending civil court cases had dropped to the lowest number ever, Bonnici said there was a “growing backlog” in the appeals court headed by the Chief Justice.

“I want to send a message to the Chief Justice… if I was in his position, in the name of the rule of law, I would have tried to do something to decide more cases,” Bonnici said, adding that for ordinary people rule of law also meant having an efficient court system.

The dig at the Chief Justice comes in the wake of critical comments he made at the start of the forensic year last month about the rule of law. Camilleri had said that “the rule of law cannot rule if the laws are not applied and enforced”, in what was interpreted as a critical assessment of the police and the Attorney General.

Read also: Chief Justice issues stark warning: the Rule of Law is failing

The Police Commissioner and the AG have been targeted by the Opposition for what it claims is their failure to investigate people close to the Prime Minister on suspicion of money laundering flagged by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit.

Bonnici’s parliamentary rant came on the same day that the European Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favour of a non-binding resolution on the rule of law in Malta in the aftermath of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder.

He was speaking on changes to the law that would create a second court of appeals to help cut the backlog. Bonnici said it would be the Chief Justice who would choose the judges to serve on the new court of appeal and what cases they would handle.

On the night, the Opposition walked out of Parliament just after question time in a symbolic protest over what they claim is government inaction to address concerns about the rule of law.