Repubblika want Angelo Gafà, Byron Camilleri to resign after Bernice Cassar's murder

Repubblika criticises how the courts have only one magistrate hearing thousands of domestic violence cases in Malta

On 30 November 2020 both Police Commissioner and Angelo Gafa unveiled the police’s Gender-Based and Domestic Violence Unit
On 30 November 2020 both Police Commissioner and Angelo Gafa unveiled the police’s Gender-Based and Domestic Violence Unit

Repubblika has called for Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà and Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri to resign on the grounds that system failure led to Bernice Cassar’s murder.

Cassar was murdered by her estranged husband on Tuesday morning, marking Malta's third femicide case this year alone.

Repubblika said that Gafà and Camilleri should resign over the failed centralisation of domestic violence police reports.

In November last year, Gafà and Camilleri unveiled the police’s Gender-Based and Domestic Violence Unit. However, Repubblika said this has made it much more difficult for victims to reach an authority that has the time to listen to them and the capacity to do something to protect them. 

“Domestic violence victims reporting at district police stations are sent back home to their perpetrator. When approaching the police headquarters, the victims are welcomed by long queues that dishearten them,” said Repubblika.

This indicates that, contrary to what the government had promised, new challenges have arisen.

Repubblika also criticised how only one magistrate is hearing domestic violence cases, despite a huge backlog and over a thousand ongoing cases.

Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina said in Parliament on Tuesday 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 to hear such cases.

“This serves as a sign to victims not to report instances of violence until they have received justice for earlier incidents. This is the State's way of saying that it doesn't care about domestic violence victims or their suffering.”

The difficulty in filing a police report, the delay in hearing charges in court, and the total ineffectiveness of protection orders all led to Bernice Cassar’s murder, according to Repubblika. “These are political and administrative failures,” the NGO insisted.

Repubblika added that investigations cannot go on peacefully when it is obvious that the government policies and actions directly led to the death of Bernice Cassar.

READ ALSO: Malta’s domestic violence system failure: Bernice Cassar left at the mercy of her killer