AD pledges support for Camilleri, Vella Gera in upcoming Realtà appeal

Attorney General Peter Grech filed a 32-page appeal of the verdict of Magistrate Audrey Demicoli, who liberated the two accused of obscenity charges.

In his appeal the Attorney General argues that Vella Gera admitted to having written his short story Li Tkisser Sewwi “on impulse” and “without any form of self-censorship”.

“He was free to write what he wanted without self-censorship,” Grech states in the appeal. “But the author must realise there are others living with him, whose ideas, preferences and tastes are unlike his; a society that must be protected, and its morality preserved.

“And there’s God above everything and above everyone, and God is certainly bigger than the biggest of egos of even more famous writers.”

AD spokesperson for civil rights and culture Yvonne Ebejer Arqueros said freedom of expression was the cornerstone of democracy.

“It is indispensable in a democratic and European society.  Malta’s outdated laws on censorship are a contradiction of this. AD empathises with and supports Mark Camilleri and Alex Vella Gera in their appeal hearing. A confessional PN and a Labour Party which hardly ever takes a clear stand are already more than enough for Malta, let alone an Attorney General who appeals these types of decisions.”

AD chairperson Michael Briguglio said AD believed in a truly democratic, secular and progressive society where diversity is celebrated and protected. “Freedom of the press and the modernisation of censorship laws are indispensable for such a society.”

‘God’ appeal

One of the controversial aspects of this appeal is that the Attorney General specifically quotes Vella Gera’s statement to the court in which he says he wanted to give readers total immersion in his first-person monologue, narrated by a sex-driven man who treats women sordidly, “without any moralism, in the sense that I didn’t include the voice of God saying ‘look you’re going wrong’.”

What would otherwise be interpreted as the absence of a conscience in the controversial character of Li Tkisser Sewwi, the Attorney General states in his appeal that Vella Gera exhibited “the apex of individualistic views to the detriment of the common good, that is trampled upon by those who, in their anti-juridical and contorted interpretation of freedom of expression, try to expose and impose their ego and individualistic interests to the detriment of the innocent.”

The Attorney General will also ask the Court of Appeal to consider that Vella Gera’s work was not in the public interest; that the witnesses Lino Spiteri, Profs. Kenneth Wain, Albert Gatt, Ranier Fsadni, Maria Grech Ganado, Adrian Grima and Toni Attard – presented by the defence – were not court experts and therefore expressed their subjective opinion; and that the short story does not constitute “an instrument of spiritual elevation or aesthetic pleasure”.