Contentious cyber abuse law to be revised, femicide Bill to be tabled 'as soon as possible'

Government will table the femicide Bill “as early as possible” once the new parliament is convened, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard said.

And a Bill criminalising cyber abuse, which had raised eyebrows over potential implications on free speech, will be reviewed before being tabled again, he added.

The two bills were being debated in parliament last February but had not cleared all stages before the election was called. All laws that were still pending in the last legislature expired when parliament was dissolved.

The femicide Bill was presented in the wake of the brutal murder of Paulina Dembska in a public garden in Sliema at the turn of the year.

It introduced the concept of femicide in Malta’s Criminal Code but the debate was cut short at Second Reading stage when the election was called.

“There was a commitment by the Prime Minister during the election campaign that the femicide Bill will be presented again and the intention is to do so as early as possible,” Attard told MaltaToday.

He said the Bill would have to be tabled all over again and pass through the relevant stages of parliament but foresaw no problems given it enjoyed bipartisan support. “The Opposition was on board and I don’t see any issues with the Bill,” Attard said.

But while the commitment on the femicide Bill is to move forward as quickly as possible, the Justice Minister said the government will go slow on proposed legislation to criminalise cyberstalking and cyberbullying.

The law on cyber abuse had reached the Second Reading in parliament but the debate was also cut short because of the election.

The government proposal had raised concerns over the possible misuse of the law to curb free speech online.

Then Opposition MP Therese Comodini Cachia had warned that the wording of the Bill, which included any acts that are ‘offensive’, could be used as an excuse to silence critics. “One should not see a return of criminal libel under the guise of cyberstalking or cyberbullying,” she had argued. Criminal libel had been removed from the statute books in 2017.

But government will be taking a step back to review the legislative proposal before tabling it again, the new Justice Minister said.

“The principle that cyberbullying and cyberstalking should be criminalised remains the same but given the concerns raised during the parliamentary debate I will review the legislation and table an amended version in due course,” Attard said.

Attard was appointed justice minister by Prime Minister Robert Abela after the election, taking over from Edward Zammit Lewis who was left out of Cabinet.

All work pending before parliament comes to a natural end once the House is dissolved, including work before the committees.

Any law the government feels should be tabled again will have to pass through the legislative process afresh, starting from the First Reading.

Parliament will only be able to convene once the electoral process comes to an end on Tuesday when casual elections will be held to fill seats vacated by dual-candidacy Nationalist MPs.

Casual elections to fill vacancies created by Labour MPs who were elected on two districts were held last Thursday.

After the casual elections, the Electoral Commission will apply the gender corrective mechanism to elect 12 more female MPs bringing the electoral process to an end.

It is very likely that the first session of parliament will be held after Easter.