Giving the same status to bribery and genocide
Giovanni Bonello, who has been appointed by the government to chair the Justice Reform Commission, has had published in The Times yesterday a piece about the reasons why time-barring on corruption crimes should not be removed, and more specifically, why any such time-barring should not be retroactive (in other words, why it should apply only to such crimes which take place after the law changes and not to those which took place under a different legal regime).
Given that the removal of time-barring on corruption cases was one of Joseph Muscat’s campaign horses – I haven’t bothered checking whether it’s actually in the Labour Party’s electoral programme, but I imagine it is – Bonello’s article is significant, especially in view of his current law reform role.
I wish, though, that he had written this piece during the electoral campaign, when the matter was brought up repeatedly. It would have focussed some people’s minds.
Giovanni Bonello’s considered opinion on the matter would have carried a whole lot more weight than mine did, or that of others.
The link to his piece is below.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130420/opinion/Bribery-and-genocide-the-same-.466291
http://www.maltarightnow.com/?module=news&at=Xhieda+dwar+swat++li+fiha+jissemma%27+l-Kummissarju+tal-Pulizija&t=a&aid=99846489&cid=19
Well Nighthawk, that just goes to show that reconciliation was just a load of bs. Not only was he kept as inspector but went all the way up to superintendent!
Judge Bonello was recently severely criticised on this blog. Now he is being praised.
[Daphne – Yes, David, he was severely criticised on this blog. Not by me, though. Don’t be disingenuous as well as anally retentive.]
As far as I recall even the PN promised to abolish prescription. Why did none of our so called constitutional experts ever speak on this issue?
[Daphne – The PN did not promise to abolish ‘prescription’ (time-barring). Time-barring of what, anyway? Time-barring in general?]
The amendment abolishing prescription would not probably apply retroactively, in the light of Article 39(8) of the Maltese Constitution and Article 7 of the European Convention. It can only apply for future offences.
Yes, well, we’re rewriting the Constitution, aren’t we? And it’ll be put to popular vote, and Franco will text each and every one of us constantly at all hours to make sure he gets his way.
We can do it the other way round. We can send thousands of sms’s to Franco – out of courtesy, we will space them out at intervals of a few minutes each. We will be very meticulous in our proposals – we will even tell him where to put his commas, full stops and apostrophes.
We can text him at every hour of the day, including at midnight, one o’clock, two o’clock in the morning…
I am sure he will be in a position to receive our sms’s because his mobile “anke mitfi jdoqq.”
Proposal number 1, Chapter 18, Joseph’s Rowtmepp:
“Innehhu l-ligi tal-preskrizzjoni ghall-politici dwar reati relatati mil-korruzzjoni.”
So there, Labour’s most important “proposta” in their fight against the crime of corruption would result in the breach of human rights, and hence the constitution.
And this by the party that proposes to reform the constitution.
I just hope that the Labour regime is not using Judge Giovanni Bonello to do a backtracking on its proposal. They have a tendency to manipulate others – it’s part of their philosophy of “the end justifies the means.” And they also have a history of “U-turns” for wrong policy.
Of course they are, ciccio. Just take a look at their ‘historic’ rowd mepp. No GPS back then.
I read the article and realised how unknowledgeable I am.
And the President of Malta wants US to vote on the Constitution when even the party wise men of both parties did not even smell what can go “behind the scenes”.
@ David. It is not true that nobody spoke against the proposed amendments to the Criminal Code. I am no constitutional law expert but I voiced similar concerns to those of Judge Vanni Bonello in my article in “Illum” of 10 February 2013. It’s on page 16 of the following link.
newspaper.maltatoday.com.mt/booklet/433
I would go one better : the abolition of time-barring for political offenders discriminates between those who corrupt and the corrupted and I doubt very much whether it will survive the scrutiny of the ECHR as Judge Bonello posited.
If on the other hand, the maximum period of detention for such an offence is increased, the period for the offence to be time-barred would increase automatically. This would be a more satisfactory solution.
Yes Daphne, but political corruption is and should be tantamount to bribery and genocide. It is a crime against the people and the people’s hard earned taxes.
If we had to drag the human rights issue into this equation as we are doing with illegal immigration, the results would be visibly catastrophic and to the detriment of the nation is general.
[Daphne – You cannot be serious.]
Should there be a law of prescription for Dr KIA (know it all) if the Maltese economy goes the Cyprus/Greece way?