Comments on: CORRUPTION AND ABUSE UPDATE: Emmanuel Mallia & Associates force illegal arraignment of Birdlife activists on behalf of their hunters association client/Magistrate erupts in fury

By: gaetno pace

gaetno pace — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 08:32:48 +0000

They were prosecuted for the wrong reason. They were prosecuted to tarnish the credibility of our beloved Police Force.

They have been prosecuted for reporting the commission of a crime.

They have been prosecuted for nothing less than political interference in the course of justice.

Shame on you Minister you would certainly not have had it your way in the days of the late Commissioner De Grey and Commissioner Alfred Bencini.

They would have stood up to you and would have told you what to interfere and meddle with. Shame, Minister. Never did I expect as much of you. I thought I knew you better. Shame on you.

By: veritas

veritas — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:41:57 +0000

In reply to veritas.

Daphne, pls do not confuse legal basis with moral or ethical basis. Legalese being what it is will not at challenge proceedings level go into moral or ethical issues since the Challenge Proceedings are one of the few proceedings available to an injured party to force the police to redress their complaint in full face of police legal powers.

This is one of the few safeguards in face of the right to decide on prosecuting a case, and like all systems it is not perfect and may be stretched to accommodate the ‘good’ (tongue in cheek lest I be misinterpreted) lawyer’s clients as was apparently done in this case…

On the moral and ethical ground Magistrate Vella is well known for his quick grasp of a situation and his no nonsense approach, and quite often he lambasts those that appear to obfuscate the issues on either side of the legal divide, prosecution, defence or parte civile nothwitstanding.

By: veritas

veritas — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 07:59:44 +0000

In reply to kev.

Kevin, you should know better, once a magistrate orders charging a person especially through Challenge Proceedings there is no Appeal. The Police have to act and charge a person, else they will be in direct contempt of court. Not a pleasant situation to find oneself in as you well know.

[Daphne – Well actually, Kevin is right here and you are wrong. The magistrate (not Vella) should never have accepted the challenge. He should have thrown it out. There was no legal basis for accepting it, and every legal basis for not accepting it. It has become a habit for the police and the court of justice to play fast and loose with people’s lives. To be on the ‘safe side’ themselves as individuals, they put the very people whose rights they are supposed to protect through hell – precisely because they see them as numbers and cogs in the wheel, not people.]

By: Julian Mompalao de Piro

Julian Mompalao de Piro — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 21:45:36 +0000

I bet this year’s panto writers are struggling to keep up with everything that’s going on and they’ll probably still be updating their scripts as the first actors step on stage.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 20:58:59 +0000

This is also the price we’re paying for a flawed approach to education where everything is taken at face value. Logic vs education, responsibility vs power, etc.

By: bob-a-job

bob-a-job — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 20:52:12 +0000

In reply to ciccio. Kemm qedin tajjeb hux Cicc?

By: kev

kev — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 19:05:34 +0000

Just because there was a ‘challenge’ does not mean the police were obliged to take action. They should have let them take their ‘challenge’ to the higher courts and make a fool of themselves.

By: Giuseppe Azzopardi

Giuseppe Azzopardi — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 17:51:14 +0000

There is a hole in the bucket, dear Joseph, dear Joseph. A hole, and a big one for that matter. It is so big that Minister Mallia thinks he can go in and out of the bucket as he pleases.

YOUR TIME IS UP, DEAR MINISTER. You think that the Maltese are CWIEC. FORGET IT….TIME TO GO. And ALL the troupe of this pantomime.

By: Alexander Ball

Alexander Ball — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 16:21:50 +0000

Sometimes I love the way these guys take the piss out of the system.

By: Evarist Saliba

Evarist Saliba — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 15:11:07 +0000

Has all sense of propriety and decent behaviour been lost in our country?

Fine legalistic points and arguments have nothing to do with justice, and still less with decency.