The Parliamentary Secretary for Justice, Owen Bonnici, has established a firm grip over his portfolio and is moving forward the long overdue need for improvements in the administration of justice.

Following the wide-sweeping proposals of the Justice Reform Commission, a number of amendments to the laws on criminal court procedures have been approved in committee stage by Parliament. The Bill is the start of a long reform process, with a second package of amendments about to be published soon.

The current package includes new rights for those arrested to know what information the police have about them and what they are suspected of doing.

Importantly, a defendant will be able to admit guilt during the compilation of evidence stage in cases where the minimum punishment is four years in prison. He will then have to be sentenced within a month. This should have a significant impact on reducing the backlog of pending cases.

The concept of plea bargaining will be extended to all courts, speeding up considerably the administration of justice.

In line with proposals made three years ago by the European Justice Commissioner, the amendments in question will strengthen the rights of those arrested by the police. In sum, the police will have to inform the suspect of five rights: access to a lawyer; access to legal aid; the right to information; for foreigners, the right to interpretation in their own language; and the right to remain silent.

These five rights will be presented by the police to suspects in writing in a ‘letter of rights’ in English or Maltese.

The key rights this latest proposal will introduce will guarantee access by the accused to a lawyer before the start of any questioning and from the start of any deprivation of liberty. The lawyer will be able to ask questions and make statements on his client’s behalf during interrogation and hearings. The confidentiality of communication between lawyer and suspect will be guaranteed.

Any evidence obtained in breach of the right of access to a lawyer will not, as a rule, be used as evidence against the person whose right has been violated.

These are vitally important rights, one of which – the right to access to a lawyer – is already considered a fundamental human right by the European Court of Human Rights. Any civilised country that subscribes to the notion that a person suspected of a crime is innocent until proven otherwise would agree.

These latest amendments, therefore, bring Malta fully into line with best practice being sought by Brussels.

Other amendments in the Bill include tougher penalties for sexual crimes against children and changes to extend the whistleblower concept to any crime, not just those tied to the workplace.

This will mean that accomplices who wish to give evidence against the main culprit in a crime can enrol in the police witness protection programme and give evidence at any stage of the criminal proceedings, thus helping to speed up the chances of a conviction.

As part of the efforts being made to streamline the administration of justice, the amendments will also recognise e-mails sent by the Court Registrar as official communications, thus not only bringing court procedures into the 21st century but also improving and speeding up the administration of justice.

The Bill demonstrates the government’s commitment to reforming the administration of justice and it is to the Opposition’s credit that it too has cooperated on a bipartisan basis in drawing up and passing these amendments.

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