A call for a sentencing policy made by a Justice Reform Commission three years ago remains unheeded with no real plans apparently in place to address the matter.

A 2013 report by the commission, headed by former European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello, highlighted the lack of uniformity in court judgments. It noted a lack of consistency when imposing penalties in cases that were more or less similar to each other.

The commission said that the drafting of a sentencing policy for courts of criminal jurisdiction needed to be taken “seriously”.

On his appointment in October 2014, Mr Justice Wenzu Mintoff called for a sentencing policy. He said it was needed to allow the judiciary to achieve uniformity in sentencing and decisions.

Observers have described the court system as, at times, being a matter of luck in terms of the sentences handed down.

Certain members of the judiciary are known to apply harsh jail terms while others appear to be more forgiving.

Observers have described the court system as, at times, being a matter of luck in terms of the sentences

In 2013, street protests were held calling for the release of Welshman Daniel Holmes, who had been jailed for 10 years and fined €23,000 for cultivating 32 cannabis plants of varying maturity. Critics deemed the judgment to be harsh.

Last March, Steven Micallef, 39, was jailed for five years after admitting to cultivating 60 cannabis plants.

Earlier this month, a police inspector urged the courts to give harsher sentences to foreigners caught pickpocketing in Malta.

In that case, a Bulgarian woman was jailed for 16 months after the police inspector complained that suspended sentences normally handed down to pickpockets had not acted as a sufficient deterrent.

Asked by the Times of Malta whether the Justice Ministry offered the judiciary any sentencing guidelines and whether there were plans for a sentencing policy, a spokeswoman said the issue was intimately related to judicial autonomy.

“The government’s legislative role is to provide tools which lead to fair, objective sentencing. On their part, the judiciary are obliged to provide judgments within the parameters of the law.

“The Ministry for Justice is also informed that members of the judiciary regularly meet to discuss issues of relevance to the exercise of their duties. The government assists the judiciary through the judicial studies committee and is keen to further support this structure,” the spokeswoman said.

The Bonello Commission recommended the establishment of a commission for the preparation of a sentencing policy.

The commission would be led by a former judge and include a representative of the probation service, an expert in social work, an expert in criminology and a representative from the Corradino prison.

The Bonello Commission recommended setting up a body that would draft a sentencing policy.  

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