Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has claimed that the removal of religious vilification as a criminal offence has made it harder to prosecute acts such as the desecration of copies of the Quran at Mater Dei earlier this week.

“We need to stress that condemnable actions like these are the reasons why the PN disagreed with the decision to remove the vilification law,” Dr Busuttil said during a radio interview this morning.

“The perpetrator cannot be prosecuted because these acts have now become legal. We disagreed with the removal of this law also on security grounds; these acts do nothing to increase people’s peace of mind.”

Writing on Facebook, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici denied that this was the case and criticised Dr Busuttil for politicising the incident.

“The law means that it is no longer a criminal offence to produce religious parody and satire, increasing artistic freedom,” Dr Bonnici said. “However, acting abusively or insultingly with the goal of inciting religious hatred or violence is still a very serious criminal offence.”

A statement issued by the Justice Ministry this morning made a similar point, arguing that religious vilification and hate crimes were distinct issues under Maltese law. 



During the interview on Radio 101, Dr Busuttil also raised questions over allegations, reported in the Sunday Times of Malta, that a Health Ministry official ran a medical visa racket charging Libyans thousands of euros to get into Malta.

“The Opposition has repeatedly expressed concern over the granting of Libyan medical visas,” he said. “How can government claim to be ensuring our security when there are allegations – not for the first time – of bribery in the granting of visas?”

He added that this scandal, as with others, appeared to emanate directly from Castille, indicating corruption at the very highest level of government.

In a statement this evening, the government said that it had taken immediate action and the person named in The Sunday Times of Malta article was being investigated.

This, it said, had already been clarified in the newspaper and it was a shame that the Opposition leader cast doubts where none existed.

Responding to comments by the Prime Minister in an interview earlier this week, when Dr Muscat said he had been “disappointed” by the Panama Scandal, Dr Busuttil accused the PM of insulting people’s intelligence.

“How can he claim to be disappointed when he himself is responsible for failing to take action? The PM is as responsible as Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri and is now adding insult to injury.”

Looking back at the first seven months of the year as Parliament breaks for the summer recess, Dr Busuttil said the Opposition had succeeded in giving people a voice and making valid proposals, highlighting the new public domain law and protest surrounding the Panama Papers.

“We have shown that we are a serious Opposition that has pushed forward valid proposals,” he said. “We are not just waiting for an electoral campaign but actively putting pressure on the government to put our proposals into law.”

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