Mona Camilleri whose husband and son were murdered a year ago called on the authorities to increase protection offered to victims of crime and their families and to show more sensitivity. Photo: Paul Spiteri Lucas

Laws that seek to protect victims of crime are not being adequately implemented, monitored and enforced, according to Victim Support Malta director Roberta Lepre.

She mentioned, as an example, protection orders, when a court instructs a perpetrator to stay away from a victim. Such orders are not even registered – as happens, for example, in the case of bail conditions – making them difficult to monitor.

Dr Lepre argues there is an urgent need to transpose the 2012 EU Directive on Victims’ Rights into Maltese law. The directive speaks about the right to information, protection and support for crime victims and their families.

“The State has a duty to provide for the safety and protection of its citizens, in particular victims of crime, and the transposition and the effective implementation of the directive will help to achieve this.

“Substantial investment in the relative services is also needed to ensure that the law is applied in practice and achieves the intended results,” Dr Lepre said.

Grocer Carmel Testa, 68, has called for better protection for victims after a man – who allegedly attacked him with a knife in his shop last Tuesday – turned up outside the same outlet the following day.

A month ago, Mona Camilleri, whose husband and son – both called Mario – were murdered and buried in a Birżebbuġa field a year ago, called on the authorities to increase protection offered to victims of crime and their families and to show more sensitivity.

The State has a duty to provide for the safety and protection of its citizens, in particular victims of crime

Ms Camilleri told Times of Malta she still did not feel safe and feared for her life and that of her eight-month-old daughter. Besides, she also craved closure and wanted to be able to bury her husband, known as L-Imnieħru, whose body was still being held at Mater Dei Hospital morgue.

His body had been exhumed for further investigations on July 23, 2013, four days after his funeral together with that of his 21-year-old son.

On July 14 this year, Times of Malta asked the Justice Ministry why the body was still at the morgue and what was being done to protect victims of crime. No reply has been received so far.

The Home Affairs Ministry was also asked what is being done to support victims of crime. In June 2013, Home Affairs Minister Emanuel Mallia had said that the planned prison reform should also help victims of crime. He later said he had asked NGO Victim Support Malta to prepare a report outlining what type of help they had in mind.

A spokeswoman said the report was submitted and was being studied. A meeting would he held with the NGO to explore tangible ways how the government could help, she said.

Dr Lepre confirmed that Victim Support Malta held meetings with the minister and his representatives and another encounter was in the pipeline.

“While acknowledging that the ministry has been very forthcoming in its approach towards the needs of victims of crime, the requirements of the Directive on Victims’ Rights and the needs that our organisation has to strengthen its services in a manner that adequately addresses the needs of its service users, to date, no concrete assistance has been granted and, so far, we have not been invited to form part of the task force working on the transposition of the Victims’ Rights Directive,” Dr Lepre said.