News | Sunday, 10 January 2010

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Mifsud Bonnici irked at pressure on legal access

Karl Stagno-Navarra
Home Affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici this week confronted Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, in an attempt to convince him not to be pressured into “appeasing” disgruntled backbencher Franco Debono, by hastily introducing an amendment to the Criminal Code which permits criminal suspects to consult with a lawyer before being interrogated by the police.
MaltaToday was told that Mifsud Bonnici “blew his top” over pressure from Castille to speed up the process to amend the law, which both his office and the Police force do not want to implement until they get the necessary guarantees that such a move would not encourage criminality.
The amendment is part of a wide-ranging reform of the judiciary that had been unanimously approved by parliament in 2002, but never implemented due to serious concerns from the police.
The issue is one of a series of “complaints” put forward to the Prime Minister by Franco Debono, who last month embarrassed government by missing a parliamentary vote that led to Speaker Louis Galea to use his casting vote.
Debono stressed this matter once again last Friday on PBS during Xarabank, where he insisted that “Parliament must be respected,” in an obvious dig at the Prime Minister.
The backbencher, who until recently had clearly fallen out of favour with the Prime Minister, will also feature in an edition of PBS’s Dissett, to talk about the issue of access to legal assistance for criminal suspects.
His participation on Xarabank this Friday was also given additional promotion by PBS news the night before, in a news report on the legal amendment, which also featured minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici. “I don’t want to be put into a position where somebody comes up to me to tell me that with the amendment, his or her aggressor or whatever walked free from prosecution or judgement,” an irate Mifsud Bonnici told PBS on Thursday.
Mifsud Bonnici went a step further, saying confessions were “conclusive evidence”.
Ministry officials later told MaltaToday that they were annoyed that PBS could have been guided in piling on the pressure on Mifsud Bonnici, who is reportedly being told by the police force not to give in to the pressure.
The minister’s staff considered the news report as “odd” given that the item included Labour’s spokesperson on justice Josè Herrera, who challenged the minister to implement the measure without any delay, insisting it was a suspect’s human right to consult a lawyer prior or during his interrogation.
The Home Affairs and Justice Ministry wants to put its mind at rest that the measure “would not jeopardise police investigations” when it carries out interrogations of criminal suspects.
In the meantime, the ministry has issued a public tender for the supply of a DNA matching analysis machine for the police, which process would take months and might delay any enactment of the legal aid issue. The machine will allow investigators to match DNA evidence elevated from crime scenes with suspects.

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