The second wife of a man who spent more than a year in jail after being falsely accused by his daughter of molesting her said she was scolded by the Justice Minister for seeking the Nationalist Party’s help.
“I came across Minister Owen Bonnici last week in Valletta and introduced myself.
He greeted me very cordially but when I told him about our case he suddenly stopped smiling and told me: ‘it’s you who decided to go to the Nationalists’.
“I was so offended and taken aback that I decided I would never speak to the minister again”, a very angry Desiree Camilleri told the Times of Malta.
I was trying to understand why she felt the need to take her issue to politicians
When contacted, Dr Bonnici denied he scolded Ms Camilleri: “This was a very
casual and short conversation where Ms Camilleri spoke to me from the balcony of an office while I was going into my residence.
“The spirit of my words were in the sense that I was trying to understand why
she felt the need to take her issue to politicians.
In fact, she told me she did so because she was perturbed that a judge deferred judgment 11 times. While I sympathise with her frustrations as the court should have dealt with this case with more expediency, I couldn’t do anything,” Dr Bonnici said.
He insisted that while he had nothing against the Camilleris and did not wish to
enter into any form of controversy over their case, he felt it was not fair that a judge should put off handing down judgment 11 times.
“I would like to appeal that this case is decided without further delay because what has happened [the delay] is wrong,” Dr Bonnici insisted.
Justice shadow minster Jason Azzopardi last week filed a Private Members Bill to amend the law so the Criminal Appeal Court would be empowered to re-investigate cases where fresh evidence indicates that justice has been badly administered.
The government objected to the presentation of the proposed changes in first reading in Parliament, arguing that this had first to be decided by the House Business Committee.
Dr Bonnici said that while the government had no objection to the presentation of the Bill, one had to bear in mind that the Constitutional Court already had the powers to rectify the injustice suffered by Emanuel Camilleri.
He said the Opposition should be cautious when presenting such Bills, which could put undue pressure on a constitutional case about to be decided.
Dr Azzopardi pointed out that the amendment had nothing to do with the ongoing Constitutional Case because whatever the court decided it would not repeal the original sentence which found Mr Camilleri guilty of sexually abusing his daughter.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com