The case of Dorianne Camilleri, the 34-year-old teacher who was sentenced to five years in jail for involuntarily killing a man and injuring his sister in a traffic accident in 2011, was raised in parliament this evening by Nationalist MP Antoine Borg.

Mr Borg who called for the elimination of the minimum sentence established by law and greater discretion by the courts insofar as suspended sentences were concerned.

Ms Camilleri was convicted of the involuntary homicide of Alfred Zahra, 64 of Msida, and of critically injuring his sister Carmela Zahra, 75, in the accident on the Rabat road in May 2011.

The court's decision last Friday, raised a storm of protests. But experts pointed out that the court exercised the law as amended, and the punishment was actually at the lower end of the scale.  

The Criminal Code says: “Where the offender has caused the death of more than one person or where in addition to causing the death of a person the offender has also caused bodily harm to another person or other persons the punishment shall be that of imprisonment of a term from five to 10 years.”

Mr Borg, a non-legal person, made it clear from the onset that he was raising the subject without any intention of influencing the appeal process but solely in a bid to address anomalies and disproportionality of sentences in certain cases.

He said there was a difference between an accused with a clean record and another who drove indiscriminately. Furthermore, he called for the competence of the Court, as regarded the suspended sentence, to be widened. There were criminals and victims but there were also victims of circumstances who had to be shown mercy.

Concluding, Mr Borg called for a legal framework that would ensure real justice based on solidarity and dignity of the person.