Court proceedings ground to a halt yesterday when a lawyer complained the newly-installed digital recording system was not allowed by law.

Nationalist backbencher Franco Debono raised the issue shortly after it emerged that the testimony of four witnesses in a case against one of his clients had not been recorded because of some problem with the new digital recording system that uses CDs.

Dr Debono himself had pressured the government to introduce digital recording in a series of parliamentary questions tabled over a period of 18 months.

Of the 12 digital recorders received so far, five were already in place in court halls and the rest were in the process of being installed, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said.

During the sitting yesterday, Dr Debono told Magistrate Miriam Hayman that according to the Electromagnetic Recording of Proceedings Act, which came into effect on May 9, 1980, witnesses’ testimony had to be recorded by “any electromagnetic means” and the law did not refer to any digital apparatus such as CDs.

The magistrate noted she was not the one who could amend laws and the lawyer quipped that was precisely his point, adding that the law needed to be changed immediately to allow digital recording.

The magistrate said she would consult the Maltese version of the law before declaring to the packed courtroom this development would delay and disrupt the court’s schedule.

Lawyers and their clients who were waiting for their case to be heard left though a few wanted to continue.

Former Justice Minister and criminal lawyer Joe Brincat informed the magistrate the law in question had been drafted by himself and according to him “electromagnetic” also encompassed digital recording. Furthermore, he had no objection to witnesses in his case being recorded digitally. The magistrate told Dr Debono she viewed the incident as nothing but a delaying tactic and the lawyer replied it would be imprudent of him to raise it at a later stage when proceedings could potentially be declared null.

“You are right,” the magistrate said.

The magistrate then summoned the director of the courts and postponed the day’s sittings. She later sent a letter to Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici alerting him to the fact that the law governing the recording of witnesses had not yet been amended.

On Tuesday Dr Debono filed a Constitutional case against the minister of justice, the commissioner of police and the attorney general over a number amendments that needed to be implemented.

When contacted for a reaction, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry said the minister would not comment since a Constitutional case had been filed. The case is not about digital recording.