Nationalist MP Franco Debono said today that he was disappointed by the attitude of Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici regarding the extensive bill to amend the criminal code, announced yesterday.

"The first time I learnt about this Bill was through timesofmalta.com. The issue was not even discussed in the PN parliamentary group,"  Dr Debono, a practising lawyer in the Criminal Court, said.

Dr Debono said the issue at this stage was not over whether or not he would vote in favour of the Bill. Nor was this a personal issue with the minister. But, he said, the Bill was 'a hotch potch'.

"In the same Bill we have clauses on the recognition of the Police Association as a trade union, and clauses on prostitution," Dr Debono said.

"I obviously agree with the police's right to join a union and welcome such aspects of the Bill, but such dispositions should not have been included in a bill dealing with prostitution and other crime, but in a separate bill."

Similarly, Dr Debono said, he had long been proposing a reduction of the age of consent, as Malta was the only country where this stood at 18, however he was not in complete agreement on the amendment as proposed.

He said some aspects of the Bill needed to be discussed in detail. For example, simply raising penalties would not solve problems regarding prostitution and living off the earnings of prostitution,  in the same way as problems had not been solved elsewhere such as drug trafficking, where a life sentence applies. The most urgent matter with regard to the laws against prostitution was to stop the spread of disease, he said.

Referring to the amendments regarding drugs - including the Attorney General's discretion not to take first-offenders to court but to subject them to rehabilitation, Dr Debono said such amendments would only serve to grant more unfettered discretion to the Attorney General and increase bureaucracy. He said that a different approach should be adopted, and in any case, the AG should be required to give reasons for his decisions.

There was also need for a complete re-thinking of the role of the Attorney General, he said.

Dr Debono said there were other areas of the drug laws which needed amendment, including the automatic classification of cultivation as trafficking even when this was intended for personal use.  Legislating to make khat illegal was good, "but we are being reactive, until the next issue crops up", he said.

"I propose a board to examine drugs on the European scene so that a comprehensive list is drawn up, thus being proactive rather than being reactive," he said.

Dr Debono said the the most worrying proposal was that the Chief Justice could assign magistrates exclusive investigative roles.

"I have long campaigned for the separation of roles between adjudicating and investigating functions of magistrates. However I intended this as part of a major reform in the way investigations are carried out. Such magistrates should not be assigned work by the Chief justice, they should fall under a reformed office of the Attorney General in the context of a major reform in the investigations field," Dr Debono insisted.

Dr Debono avoided replying to question on how he will vote in parliament on this Bill and on the Budget debate on the Ministry of Justice.

In his first reaction to the Bill yesterday, Dr Debono said some of  the reforms announced by the minister were long overdue. 

"These amendments clearly show that my repeated and persistent calls for reforms in the justice sector were justified all along. Some issues are those in my private member's motion and others I have spoken about for a number of times in parliament and outside.

"It shows that there is energy and good ideas and vision in the backbench. I think some of these reforms are long overdue," Dr Debono said.

He added that some other proposals need to be analysed in detail, and further reforms are needed in other areas.    

Dr Debono himself earlier this month moved a private member's motion for extensive amendments to the Criminal Code and other laws.  He also campaigned for legal assistance for persons under interrogation and the substitution of digital recorders in court instead of cassette tapes.