Years ago, an amendment was introduced into our Criminal Juctice System which was intended to safeguard our rights prior and while being interrogated. The amendment indicated quite simply that people under interrogation have a right to legal counsel. This amendment has not yet been given the seal of approval by the minister concerned as is required by law.
There is no legal justification for this delay. With respect, the latest official statements in this regard leave much to be desired. This is not the first time. When asked in June 2008, Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici stated, correctly, that “We have to keep a balance between the interrogators’ leeway and the individual’s rights. Certain hardened criminals would make use of this system to get off the hook, so we have to strike a balance. Our system is far from perfect, and I know that interrogations are not really diplomacy at work, but I need to change it bearing in mind the required balance while making sure that whoever is a criminal is caught by the system.”
Another year has gone by and the above declaration now appears all the more in stark contrast to the breakthrough judgment of November 2008 (Salduz v Turkey) given by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, which declared that the right to a fair trial as prescribed in Article 6 of European Convention on Human Rights includes access to legal assistance during the investigation stage of a suspect by the police.
The recent justification given by the government is that nothing must be allowed to jeopardise criminal investigations. How, I ask, can the presence of a lawyer be in jeopardy to a police investigation? I believe that once more we are being muddled by numbers.
The issue is that of ensuring that investigations are carried out with the attendant scrutiny that can be afforded with the presence of a lawyer. With a lawyer present, no accusations can be levied of police high handedness. To this is to be added the raison d’être of the criminal justice system.
The ideal justice is that which will always lead to the right accused being brought to trial. In my experience this is what normally happens but, sometimes, prosecutors get it wrong. The whole scope of the exercise of democratic justice is not justice by numbers but true justice. Statistical justice is no justice at all. This strikes at the very essence of our democracy. Nibbling away at our rights does not serve us well. If we need the presence of legal counsel to ensure transparency, then so be it – no questions asked!
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