We know the problem, we have no answer

It is inconceivable that nine years later the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia remains only partly unsolved. We need closure and the anger that followed the unexpected verdict led many people who would otherwise have not felt the need to join Repubblika and protest in Valletta. They included people I know, who had voted Labour and more interestingly were in the past lampooned in a cruel way by Daphne Caruana Galizia. At the time her column served as an uncouth gossip blog as much as an investigative tool.

When I asked one of these protestors why he had chosen to be there, he replied: “Because this is far bigger than everything else and it is not about me.”

In my view the Abela administration has not quite understood how widespread the anger has spread in the aftermath of the Yorgen Fenech trial outcome.

The 8-1 verdict rdelivered by jurors shocked many people. The anger is palpable. Justice has not been meted out. But the way forward is not turning the justice system into a kangaroo court.

When four jurors were arrested this week, the first thing on everyone’s mind is that they had been bought. It turned out that they had posted or reposted Facebook comments that were construed to go contrary to their declaration on oath that they had never indulged in social media posts on the subject. The general feeling is that this is a clutching at straws exercise.

We do not have the full picture yet but it may very well be that the jurors, who were interrogated did actually post or repost something and possibly forgot about it.

If they had known that a Facebook repost would have resulted in their exclusion from the jury, I am sure they would have reposted hundreds of posts just to get out of what turned out to be a 55-day-long saga in the middle of summer.

If a mistrial is declared because of these posts—there could be other grounds for a mistrial—it will be next to impossible to select a new jury. And what happens next will be more than a simple complication.

I am one who believes that Yorgen Fenech is as guilty as hell. But taking him to the gallows without a trial or due process is not on.

Of one thing I am sure, the prosecution led by AG lawyers Anthony Vella, Godwin Cini and Danika Vella were free to act and had no interference from the state. In the eyes of many, Judge Edwina Grima acted correctly. And the police seem to have left no stone unturned to nail Yorgen Fenech at the expense, it seems, of excluding the possible involvement of others such a Keith Schembri.

A jury is, according to Maltese law, a prerequisite and mandatory when a prosecution is seeking a life sentence. The jurors in a small country such as Malta are and will always be biased and have an opinion. You cannot take that away. I do not use Facebook and when I did it was to write a solemn declaration to those who do not read MaltaToday. I cannot remember when I did write or did not. And I am sure that the vast majority will not remember what they reposted or posted over the years.

I did not particularly fancy Caruana Galizia, indeed I was one of her sternest critics. But if I were a juror, in spite of the poor presentation by the prosecution, I would have definitely found Yorgen Fenech guilty.

As for Caruana Galizia, it sounds cliché but I uphold the Voltaire platitude. “I may disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Malta has faced its dilemmas in the past. In 1984, during the Church school crisis brought about by the state, and given the intense, deeply polarised nature of the dispute between Prime Minister Dom Mintoff’s government and the Roman Catholic Church, many judges voluntarily abstained from sitting on the cases or recused themselves.

They did this to avoid any perception of religious or political bias, or because they had personal connections to the institutions involved. It was a calamity. The Dom Mintoff government actively and systematically challenged the impartiality of the judges assigned to the case. As the government objected to one judge after another, the pool of eligible members of the judiciary shrank drastically.

The disqualifications and recusals eventually whittled the available panel down to just three judges—Wallace Gulia, Stephen Borg Cardona, and Joseph David Camilleri.

When the government attempted to legally challenge yet another judge from the tiny pool that remained, the Constitutional Court took an audacious step and decided to defy the government and appointed a judge.

So, when people descended in the streets of Valletta last week, calling once again for justice, they were more than justified in being angry. They were right for pointing out the failings and corruption of the Muscat administration and the collusion that accompanied it, but they were at a loss on the solutions.

The last thing we need to solve this crisis is a kangaroo court that ignores proper laws and decides verdicts in advance. We have a problem, but the solutions cannot be knee jerk. 

PN leader Alex Borg says we need to change our government and instil a new moral order.  Yes, ok, but what will he change to ensure that we really change. The court and legal system will remain as is. What will he change?

If the answer is ‘changing people at the top’, it will not do the trick.

First of all, we need to put the criminals behind bars and then we need reforms that will guarantee that collusion between political power and business interests and corruption are stopped in their tracks before they even entrench themselves. And that requires much more than changing the people at the top—it requires a change in laws, mentalities and attitudes.