Updated at 9pm with PN statement

An amendment to the Criminal Code was this evening moved in Parliament by Justice Minister Owen Bonnici to amend the law which saw Dorianne Camilleri sentenced to five years in jail for having involuntarily killed a man and injured his sister in a traffic accident in 2011.

Dr Bonnici described the law as it stands as “draconian” insofar as the magistrate had his or her hand tied and had no option but to send the driver to jail.

The amendment would now leave the sentence at the discretion of the magistrate.

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 that: “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.”

PN statement

In a statement this evening, the Nationalist Party said it agreed with a change in the criminal law.

While sentences to criminals should be tough and while one understood the pain of the victims' relatives, there were unfortunate and innocent people who could also end up victims of circumstances.