A number of lawyers working in the field of criminal law have shot down Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici’s suggestion to restrict the granting of bail when hardened criminals are involved.
The lawyers believe this would do away with a basic principle in criminal law – the presumption of innocence.
Criminal lawyer Manwel Mallia went one step further in his criticism, saying Dr Mifsud Bonnici, who as a minister represented the executive, one of the three arms of the state along with the legislative and the judiciary, should have refrained from making certain statements “to satisfy public outcry”. “There is nothing wrong with the executive taking steps to help in the administration of justice but not through public announcements. Comments by the executive on the judiciary tend to create a certain amount of indirect interference that may have its own weight,” he said.
“These public pronouncements are sending messages to the judiciary through the public. The minister, as one of the three legs of power, should have used other avenues to discuss the issue, whether through the Chief Justice or the Commission for the Administration of Justice,” he said.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici made his comments to The Sunday Times after it emerged that the thief shot in the leg during a foiled armed robbery on a jeweller’s house in Attard last week was on bail pending criminal proceedings over another foiled hold-up on the HSBC operations centre in Qormi. Even in that case, he had been hit with a bullet, which was lodged in his jaw.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici said a clear message had to be sent to “everyone” and the government would, if necessary, introduce legislation to further limit the possibility of bail being granted in certain serious cases.
Darren Debono, 33, was granted bail at the end of October after being charged with attempting to kill police officers in the foiled HSBC heist. He had a history of court appearances and charges.
Dr Mallia stopped short of criticising the decision to grant Mr Debono bail but said this was not the only bail decree to have “gone foul”. There had been others, he said, such as those involving foreigners, where the accused had absconded. “Does this mean foreigners will not be granted bail again?” he asked.
Lawyer Giannella Caruana Curran said limiting bail was an “open and shut” provision which went contrary to the spirit of the law, adding that the criminal record was already being taken into consideration by the judiciary when considering a request for bail.
She said in Malta bail was already something that was difficult to obtain, especially when dealing with certain crimes. It was very difficult, for example, for foreigners to be granted bail.
“One cannot just close doors with such a fast and hard rule,” she said.
Another lawyer, Arthur Azzopardi, agreed, adding that bail had to be the rule not the exception. He said various judgments had been handed down by the European Court of Human Rights which ruled on bail as “the norm” and the full respect of one’s presumption of innocence.