Minister: Electronic tagging law to be enacted in 2024

Electronic tagging for certain inmates at the Corradino Correctional Facility is set to be introduced next year, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri has announced.

“This could be one of the biggest reforms in Malta,” Camilleri told a press conference on Budget estimates on Monday.

The news comes more than two years after a first reading on electronic tagging was tabled in the House.

According to the draft Bill published in 2021, tagging will be allowed on the order of the court, the CEO of the Correctional Services Agency, or the Parole Board.

Electronic tagging will only be available for effective prison penalties of not more than a year, and provided that the crime’s maximum penalty does not exceed a two-year prison sentence. Certain crimes like domestic violence and corruption of minors will be exempt.

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri

The issue of electronic tagging was raised once again earlier this year, when the convicted explosives importer Jomic Calleja Maatouk fled the country while appealing a five-year jail term.

Former Nationalist MP Franco Debono had raised the proposal of electronic tagging back in 2012.

Speaking during Monday’s press conference, the minister said the electronic tagging Bill will be discussed in parliament in the coming weeks, with government planning on enacting the law in 2024.

A tender for electronic tagging service providers was issued in November 2022.

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