Case against Caruana Galizia closed

as far as i know,now, once a report regarding domestic violence,is lodged with the police, the police have to proceed with it. even if the one who lodges the report decides to forgive and withdraw the report.
this has to be taken to court, and the perpetrator can only be forgiven, by the victim when the case is heard.
This was reviewed, as many women would first lodge a report, and then after being threatened by the perpetrator, she would have had to withdraw it.
So the case is heard, and recorded and if the perpetrator is forgiven, so be it... but not declared null.

Could some one either confirm this or correct me please?

@ C Vella
In her capacity as Magistrate, her work has been above board and professional.

As regards the actual "running of the courts" .... well.. that's another matter that definitely needs looking into.

I take a more lenient view of the case - I wanted to have look at it from a male perspective so I did an impromptu vox pop among males, and most said that yes, if the incident was slight, they would drop charges against their wife as its infra dig for a husband to prosecute his wife for this sort of offense and that if they HAD reported her in the anger of the moment, they would withdraw the complaint when calmer, Most added that they feared a negative reaction from their children ... it seems in this case, equality of the sexes is not a factor !

all's well that ends well then isn't it ay?:)

This shows how seriously domestic violence is taken on this rock. SHAME ON YOU!!!

Denis Catania:
You must be mourning the Maroons' latest failure. It is not up to Denis Catania in the USA to dictate what happens in the courts in Malta.

Once I had occassion to discuss the topic of the institution of criminal proceedings by the Police upon the complant of the injured party with an eminent lawyer, the late Dr. Victor Frendo who at the was Deputy Attorney General. Dr. Frendo said that the procedure ought to be changed and once a complaint is made it could not be waived and the case was to proceed. That was in 1977 when I had been a police inspector for a few months. Today I cannot but fully agree with Dr. Frendo's view as during subsequent experience in the Police Force I came about cases where the compalint by the injured party was waived after money changed hands even in cases of corruption of minors.

This is a disgrace to justice. It's not up to her husband to drop the charges. The people have a right to prosecute.

@ MSciberras

The two cases are not in any way related and the latter case cannot prejudice the former proceedings.

Magistrate Vella should have insisted that Dr Caruana Galiza appear before him in person and swear on oath that the affidavit was made freely and not under duress.

So in The World of Daphne this means that she is not 'compromised' in any way and the illusion of her carefully concocted and wholly artificial world of domestic bliss can be maintained, enabling her.....in her own eyes and those of her sort at least..........to dish out dirt on anyone she chooses from a pure, untainted, exemplary pedestal of virtue and propriety...................And I am not really jumping to the defence of any architect or magistrate here...........if I had to jump to the defence of anyone (which I am not) it would be those private individuals whose faces she merrily posted on her blog (and in one instance personally ridiculed) on the premise that they were readily available on FB anyway.
The fact remains that this woman's husband filed a police report accusing his wife of domestic violence. A legal affidavit drawn up by the same husband was then apparently used as a basis to withdraw this complaint, which the magistrate accepted without comment. This is a DISGRACE. In the UK, this would qualify as wasting police time at best and at worst, an affidivat submitted by THE VICTIM would have been inadmissable in court. What kind of farce is this?

Can a person make an abuse declaration and then withdraw this? Surely this sounds worse in such instances?

The way I interpret it, is that, there was a case of flying saucers, but the complaint from the husband was removed. You see this happening very often. Recently there was a case of a mother who went late to court to say she forgave her son. To which the sentence might have been different. This case is different, the complaint was withdrawn. I stand to be corrected, b ut that is my interpretation of what I read in this column.

Josette Camilleri:
You could also inform yourself about a magistrate's rights and duties and about the proper running of the courts. It's in your interest to ensure that your faith and trust in the courts are well placed. After all, you may need to appear there yourself one day.

So there's no "Case of the Flying Saucers" after all and we have to amuse ourselves reading about the "Case of the Poisoned Pen".