Court spent over €200,000 to lodge and feed jurors in three years

Juries can be a pretty expensive affair with the courts having forked out €93,490 last year in lodging and food expenses for jurors, according to data tabled in Parliament by Justice Minister Owen Bonnici.

The expense to lodge jurors stood at €74,121 while fan additional €19,369 were spent on food.

Bonnici was answering a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici. The total cost to lodge and feed jurors between 2015 and 2017 was €216,877.

Jurors are lodged in a hotel at public expense for the duration of the trial in question, in the case when the trial lasts for more than a day.

If the trial lasts for more than three days, the jurors are paid at an established rate set at law. The duration of a trial depends on the nature of the case and the number of witnesses required to testify. The data requested by Mifsud Bonnici was for lodging expenses and food.

In 2016, the total cost to accommodate and feed jurors stood at €65,389 - accommodation accounted for €49,957 and food for €15,432. Accommodation expenses in 2015 stood at €40,718 and food €17,280, for a total spend of €57,998.

The jury system, which has been in place in Malta since 1815, requires all persons duly summoened to act as jurors to attend. If a person who has been called for jury duty fails to show up without a valid cause, they may have to pay a fine of over €1,000.