Victims wait months and years for court hearing, National Council of Women says

​The National Council of Women has urged the government to act decisively to change the situation so that domestic violence victims do not have to wait months or even years to have their cases heard in court.

“Let us not keep talking and issuing press releases, action today will save a life tomorrow,” the NCW said, while condemning any violence, be it physical, psychological or verbal.

The NCW’s statement comes after the cold-blooded murder of 40-year-old woman Bernice Cassar on Tuesday morning.

The NCW questioned whether authorities are doing their utmost and said that despite a femicide law, reports at Police Stations, protests, and talks, violence still persists while society continuously fails these women.

Cassar was shot in the face and chest by her estranged husband at the Corradino industrial estate, soon after she had dropped off their two children to school.

The couple had been married for nine years.

The mother of two bled to death outside her vehicle. The murder suspect then holed up in his Qrendi residence at 9:30am, with police officers trying to convince the man to give himself up.

“Not only has her right as a human being been abused through constant violence both physical and psychological, but her life taken away by the father of her children,” the NCW said.

The Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina on Tuesday said in Palrliament that there are 1,429 domestic violence cases awaiting court hearings. Aquilina proposed that while there are open judicial seats, the court assigns a judge just for such cases.

READ ALSO: Bernice Cassar murder: husband is arrested after SIU officers storm apartment