The Attorney General, Peter Grech, has called on the courts not to give undue importance to minor errors and ensure these are cleared before passing judgement.
An accused person needs to know exactly what they are being charged with
“Giving disproportionate importance to minor errors unwittingly creates opportunities for collusion and suspicions of collusion, which might be very difficult to prove,” Dr Grech said.
He was replying to questions in the wake of public furore caused by the acquittal of three policemen and a bouncer on assault charges. The four men were acquitted of beating a French tourist in 2009 when it emerged that the charge sheet had incorrectly listed the assault as happening at 11 p.m. instead of 3 a.m.
A similar mistake had led to former priest Godwin Scerri avoid being convicted of rape when the charge sheet cited the wrong location.
The more recent incident even saw both President George Abela and Justice Minister Chris Said calling for an end to such incidents and insisting that those responsible be held accountable.
The Attorney General feels that unless an error is significant enough to lead to confusion on what a person is being charged with exactly a case should not be derailed.
Dr Grech made it clear that it was up to the courts to evaluate such situations, saying, “It is not up to me to tell the courts what to do. However, I am sure that a judge or a magistrate who is familiar with the case file has all the authority required to see to it that issues concerning slips of the pen and minor unsubstantial errors are cleared out of the way before he or she proceeds to giving judgement,” Dr Grech said.
Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco, who defended Mr Scerri, had little sympathy for the Attorney-General’s argument. “There are certain requirements demanded by law and these must be met. Prosecutors have plenty of time to correct any supposed mistakes in charges. They chose the charge, nobody interfered,” Dr de Marco said.
She said the courts had repeatedly affirmed the importance of charges being correctly filed and not changed.
According to Dr de Marco, “Neither the AG, nor the prosecuting police officer, nor the civil lawyer involved noticed the supposed error despite having years to do so.”
“An accused person needs to know exactly what they are being charged with. God forbid we end up in a situation where the accused needs to go on a fishing expedition to try and work out what they are accused of.”
The Attorney-General defended prosecutors working in his office. “Of course, the prosecution might be blamed for not having requested a correction once the error has come to light,” Dr Grech said, “but being wise after the event is always easier than making quick choices.”