Without the commitment of an independent police force, there can be no justice

I have just read yesterday’s leading article in The Malta Independent. A similar line is taken in today’s leading article.

It is all about how the people have spoken but this does not mean that crimes have been laid to rest, that justice will still have to be served.

Bit of a problem, though, isn’t there? There can be no prosecution – and therefore no justice – without the police.

The Courts of Justice and the Police are two separate powers. Magistrates cannot and do not prosecute. They hear cases put by the prosecution and the defence, and then they decide.

The current magisterial inquiries will not lead to a prosecution, no matter the outcome, because the police are required for that. We now overlook the fact that the inquiry into these money-laundering structures operated by top politicians should not be conducted by a magistrate in an inquiry, but by the police in an investigation.

Joseph Muscat “asked” for a magisterial inquiry because he knew it wouldn’t lead automatically to prosecution. What he really should have done is ask for the police to investigate, and not for a magistrate to inquire.

It’s frightening enough that any such request is made at all because the police are not independent.

Time to spell things out in the post-electoral clarity: if the police did not prosecute on the basis of not one but several Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit reports, when the FIAU is the state’s official anti-money-laundering investigative authority and its reports have the status of a magisterial inquiry report, then they are not going to prosecute on the basis of a magisterial inquiry.

And the sooner people understand this, instead of tying their hopes to the outcome of the magisterial inquiries, the better.

The situation in Malta is extremely dangerous, and it’s about time people stopped counting their euros and woke up. It’s possible to have money and business without the scourge of top-to-bottom corruption and the decimation and undermining of institutions which are there to safeguard our rights and liberties, not to protect corrupt and abusive politicians and their allies.