‘It’s nothing personal’ - Franco Debono to oppose Mifsud Bonnici’s reforms

Updated at 19:27

"It's nothing personal, but I disagree with the minister's approach to the issue of law and justice," Nationalist MP Franco Debono said yesterday in response to a package of proposals for legal reform, presented Monday by Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

Debono described the minister's initiative as one which 'only scratches the surface, and even then, scratches it in the wrong way". Asked if he will oppose the draft bill when it comes to a vote in parliament, Debono - who recently defied the PN whip on a separate motion of no confidence in Transport Minister Austin Gatt - he replied in the affirmative... though in subsequent comments he qualified that this will ultimately depend on the final form the bill would take.

"If my amendments are accepted it will be a different story," he said late yesterday evening. "The trouble is that I disagree with the entire approach, and also with many of the proposals themselves. This is nothing new, I've been saying this for years. But there are some individual proposals that are good - like the one about environmental crimes, which, as I said yesterday, is merely a case of transposing the European Framework Directive... something Malta was obliged to do anyway..."

Other aspects which meet Debono's approval concerns the recognition of the Malta police Force's right to union representation.

"I am hardly likely to block something I campaigned for myself," he said.

But Debono dismisses some of the others outright as a hotch-potch of mismatching, contradictory and piecemeal suggestions. He also singled out initiatives such as the decision to increase the discretionary powers of the Attorney General in drug cases, among others: describing the general approach as unsound.

"The AG acts as counsel to government, on cases where he himself will be a party," Debono said: adding that, rather than address and eliminate this anomaly, the proposals will only compound them instead.

"Did the minister consult any practising criminal lawyers before taking this decision?" the backbencher asked. "I don't expect to be consulted myself - so much, I suppose, for team spirit - but whose advice did he take when deciding on these reforms? Did he just consult the AG himself?"

Debono argues that the entire role of the AG needs to be revisited entirely. "What we are doing will not only fail to resolve the problems, but will add new ones in the form of extra bureaucracy." Similarly, he objects to the initiative which would indiscriminately increase powers of the police.

Elsewhere, Debono found fault with the approach to various initiatives, such as the harshening of penalties connected with drug and prostitution cases.

"It's all well and good to increase penalties for crimes such as 'living off the earnings of prostitution', but does this really act as a deterrent? How can we continue to ignore the realities of other countries where prostitution is regulated? The real issues at stake here concern the spread of diseases through lack of protection. These reforms do not address this issue: they do not insist on proper regulation, including medical check-ups, etc."

Debono also argues that in many cases, the proposed changes are reactive instead of proactive.

"Take the criminalization of khat, for instance. It only came about because of a number of cases when individuals were found guilty of possession, when khat itself was legal. So making it illegal now, we are just reacting to problems as they crop up."