(I would have liked to put this under the one by John but the reply button was missing)

International law, specifically the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity as well as Article 29 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, lists genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes as crimes that should not be subject to statute of limitations, nor to prescription.

As for the UK’s cold cases, the UK does not have prescription or satute of limitations except for non criminal cases. But other countries have: e.g France – 10 years for murder, Italy – 30 years and a number of others e.g. Germany and the Netherlands, had a statute of limitations for murder up to a couple of years ago. So as you can see, we were not unique and there is no hidden agendas on his part of the criminal code.

One can discuss at length if such rule is useful or not as there are both arguments in favour and against. On the other hand, one might find oneself in the US dilemma – e.g. all states do not have a statute of limitation for murders but they have for second degree and manslaughter (sometimes quite short .e.g Florida 4 years). In such a case, if one is accused of 1st degree murder say 5 years after the event, one cannot plea for 2nd degree murder as such a crime would have been time limited, and thus the jury has to decide either for 1st degree or none at all.

Unless the Government really takes charge of these scandals, in court and in the public administration, no one will ever have any confidence in these authorities. Scandalous. All of them. As for the Opposition, not even worth it to talk about it. Just they are not the alternative government in waiting. They are also a disgrace to our nation.

In the Uk they are reviewing murder and other cases which took place when DNA testing was not available. They have solved quite a few cold cases and prosecuted the perpetrators successfully; some of these dated back to the 80s. On the other hand there have been a handful of cases where the wrong person had been out in gaol on the basis of his confession to the police and has now been released and awarded financial compensation.
But we have the prescription clause so some high profile cases,convenuently for the culprits, cannot be followed up .
Some legal beagle correct me if I am wrong

For those who may be too young to remember, for those who may have forgotten, for those who still think that Labour had better be in government soon (much as I detest Malta Today) I am posting a link here: http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/resources/pdf/03_03.pdf

Do bear in mind that Lino Cauchi was reportedly the accountant of Fusellu’s wife. As far as I recall, he disappeared shortly after boxed adverts appeared in The Times asking for information regarding the whereabouts of a number of cars, including Fusellu’s yellow Mercedes, then a regular sight in Sliema.

Chris II. Your lecturer indeed gave a “simple” explanation. Not enough to explain why Nazi criminals are still being prosecuted some 70 years after the event.

In this case the “time barring” from prosecution is of twenty years – in this case the murder took place in 1982 – so it was time barred by 2002 as none were accused.

The seemingly unfairness of time barring used to be explained quite simply by my late forensic medicine lecturer. Imagine if you are accused of commiting a crime say 30 years ago and at the time of the crime you had a very strong alibi, but this needed to be confirmed by a witness that has now died. How are you going to defend yourself? Other reasons might also be due to the legal time limit that one is obliged to keep official documents e.g. receipts, tax forms, etc.

The problem in the case of Lino Cauchi, is that the police team investigating the crime at that time (I think headed by Anglu Farrugia) did not turn up anything significant (either due to incompetency or design) within a reasonable time after the crime (i.e 12-18 months following the crime). This is usually the best time to collect concrete evidence and witnesses. Once two or three years pass, it is very difficult to come to a conclusion except if one of the culprits decides to speak out and incriminates the lot.

And seeing how these things were dealt in those times (and I remember them well) it would have been very difficult for him/her to remain alive. BTW just ot remind you, Lino Cauchi was not alone, his partner Lino Manfre was also allegedly killed in the hospital ward some months before.

With the likes of Charlon, Jonathan, il-Farell etc, it has the potential of being high on the agenda of anyone present at the law courts tomorrow morning.

I wouldn’t know. I don’t do Facebook.