“An amnesty for my clients”
The Minister for Justice, the Police, the Army and Broadcasting has announced that a 100-day amnesty will be granted to all prisoners except paedophiles, to mark the start of a new government.
Paedophiles? How many of those are there? Making a special case of paedophiles smacks more than a little of pandering to the hysteria of crowds. I can’t see how Manuel Mallia can justify granting an amnesty to, say, a man who stabbed the mother of his child 50 times until she died (in front of the child) but not to a man who is on the paedophile register because he exposed himself to a 10-year-old.
And I don’t see, either, how Manuel Mallia can justify granting an amnesty to people who are in there for trafficking in large quantities of hard drugs.
But in any case, I don’t see how Manuel Mallia can justify granting an amnesty at all. Apart from the fact that he has a major conflict of interest because up until three months ago he was a criminal defence lawyer and several of the people who will be in receipt of this amnesty are bound to be his (ex) clients, the days of granting amnesties to prisoners to celebrate the arrival of a new government are gone.
The last time it was done was, I believe, with the election of the last Labour government in 1996. It is totally unnecessary and inappropriate, but, as somebody remarked to me in an email this afternoon, “they even bought the prisoners”.
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Mela ma kontux tafu li Malta tal-ħabsin ukoll? Crime, apparently, does pay. How many iced buns does this amnesty represent?
The chaps at Imperium Europa must be delighted. Law and order, what.
Where to start with this? http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-06-04/news/ps-hints-at-three-carnivals-per-year-and-controlled-pornography-1755348992/
The two most stupid ideas so far. Why not have two mothers’ day (most feminist government ever) and add another two fools’ day on 22 January and 9 March?
And what’s “controlled pornography”? Porn theatres, live porn shows at clubs – or maybe controlled internet giving access only to the gov.mt, maltatoday, and three (like carnival) porn websites?
So stupid ma niflahx iktar…
Il-habs taghna ukoll.
It’s a good way to secure future clients.
It could be interesting to know which clients the minister used to service a couple of months ago. Hopefully he is not doing as some of his cabinet colleagues are, and pulling in a little bit of private practice on the weekend and evenings.
So, Herrera proposed having 3 carnivals every year. Was this the first recommendation of Phyllis Muscat’s new culture advisory board?
http://www.maltarightnow.com/?module=news&at=L%2Damnestija+milqug%26%23295%3Ba+bl%2Dg%26%23295%3Bajta+%E2%80%9CTag%26%23295%3Bna+Lkoll%2C+Tag%26%23295%3Bna+Lkoll%E2%80%9D&t=a&aid=99847785&cid=19
Aha! The bullfrog, from his exalted position, reduces the sentences of the criminals he failed to successfully defend. Now that’s power.
Shakespeare’s ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ seems appropriate.
Don’t know what is the purpose of this amnesty, unless of course MLP considers all the inmates and their families are Labour. supporters.
Why the minister is not doing something noble, like doing something decent for the victims of the criminals. I do not understand his priorities at all. What a missed opportunity.
I happen heard from a first hand source that amnesty and parole where amongst a few of the closed door deals Labour promised before the election.
Of course he needed a reason to justify reducing the prison sentence so he came up with a story of how this was carried out in the past and what not.
My question is, isn’t there some form of conflict of interest? I mean he has defended a handful of these prisoners in court right up until the election…
This so-called amnesty is almost as disgustingly objectionable as its perpetrator – the minister himself.
A right proper dickhead.
May I ask what the poor victims of these monsters are being given in compensation?
Exactly my thoughts when I read the news on the Independent this evening. The prisoners shouted Taghna Lkoll. They meant Manwel taghna lkoll.
I think that the amnesty should bear the seal of the Second Republic: George Orwell with a dodo perched on his left shoulder and an iced bun in his right hand.
You really are being negative (sic).
Soon these people will be offending and being arrested again.
Guess who will be defending them?
The bloke who let them out early.
Ha ha the average Maltese is as thick as pig shit if they let him get away with this.
[Daphne – Only if he gets a waiver from his boss, like Franco Mercieca did. Otherwise there’s no way he can work as a defence lawyer in the next five years, unless he is sacked as a minister.]
Exactly my thoughts, the earlier the release, the quicker the relapse.
Doesn’t Manuel Mallia have a practice / law firm that somebody else is running on his behalf?
Wait for the new code of ethics.
Is it not blindingly obvious he’s at the prison to attract new clients?
Amnesties to prisoners who are in jail because they have damaged society, are not given any more and smack of faux benevolence of colonial rulers.
I have recently read that 75% of prisoners who finish their term end up back in jail soon after – so much for reform!
So in effect this amnesty (what are we celebrating exactly?) means most of them will just relapse 100 days earlier.
“they even bought the prisoners” or probably more accurately, their families.
Preposterous.
I don’t believe in imprisonment, however, since that is the system in place in Malta this needs to respected. Mallia is simply sticking up 2 fingers at the law and the nation.
How fucking backward!
Can someone highlight some of these cases involving our new minister for justice?
Three carnivals to celebrate his profession of a clown and controlled pornography to start his part time job.
Police are punished and transferred, and criminals are rewarded.
What do the the Labour elves think about this? After years of blaming everything under the sun for the soft sentences under the previous government.
The prisoners began chanting ‘Tagħna Lkoll’ when informed in the prison yard. Seriously, can we say it’s now official that Malta is also in the hands of the worst criminals too?
I have always considered Labour to be a criminal organisation.
(Watch the Sopranos – apparently its well researched – and the language and attitude is soooooo MLP)
Now we have statistical verification. One would normally assume that criminals and sociopaths are equally distributed amongst the population, but even if there was a skew in either direction, we now know that all criminals and their families are Labour supporters.
I suppose it makes life more difficult in terms of a PN re-election, but like the hunters, I think its another voting pool we should be more than glad to get rid of.
Manuel Mallia: Making Malta Safer
I really don’t agree with an amnesty to prisoners to celebrate any party’s victory.
Why don’t they give us law-abiding citizens a tax-free year then? We’d like to celebrate Labour’s historic victory too.
I wonder what he will be giving the victims and their families.
And that is not to comment about the unbelievable scenes of the Minister hugging criminals. I really could not believe my eyes.
And I cannot believe how Labour managed to throw Malta back to mediocrity in such a short period of time.
This really shows that no matter how much money and effort you pour down the education system, once a peasant always a peasant.
Amnesties are the pet subject of Mark Montebello (I’ll dispense with the ludicrous ‘Father’). The whole nation stopped its rational analysis of this man’s opinions the moment he became a Xarabank Celebrity, consecrated as the ascetic Voice Of The Batut by that circus.
I don’t expect anyone to raise the slightest objection to this latest obscenely opportunistic move by Manuel ‘National Security’ Mallia.
The hero of both the Left-wing wiggers and the Right-wing stormtroopers, eh? Quite a feat.
We are living back in time. There’s no way we can stop the clock. It’s time for regress.
Whose’s in for the next iced bun?