Veteran Labour MP Joseph Brincat has presented a private member’s bill in Parliament to remove the prescriptive time for crimes of corruption and abuse.
Brincat has proposed that the running of prescription be removed on crimes involving the corruption and bribery of public officers, members of the judiciary and law enforcement officials, MPs and councillors.
The bill also calls for the removal of prescription on cases where public officers take any private interest in the issuing or adjudication of orders.
“I consider that the matter should have been on the agenda for a long time. It is true Labour promised this proposal in its last electoral manifesto. I do not expect the PM from an opposing party would legislate on parts on the Labour manifesto,” Brincat told MaltaToday.
Prescription bars criminal action from being taken in respect of several crimes after a number of years elapse from when a crime is known to have been committed.
In Maltese law, prescription is determined by the term of imprisonment specified for each crime, unless otherwise stated. In the case of crimes liable to the punishment of imprisonment of not less than 20 years, prosecution is time-barred after 20 years.
Brincat said the bill was in conformity with Article 29 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which binds State parties to establish longer limitations or suspend prescription where alleged offenders evade justice.
“Malta should ratify such a Convention. Or have we always been and will always be in the future above suspicion, that such sins are alien to our culture? I have my doubts, I have some evidence, and I have my conviction that we are not holier than others,” Brincat said.
In September 1990, seven months after a report by the Permanent Commission against Corruption, criminal charges were filed against former Labour minister Lorry Sant, Piju Camilleri, Victor Balzan, Joseph Camilleri, Joe Pace and Ganni Camilleri on accusations of corruption.
Lorry Sant and Piju Camilleri were also accused of abusing their public posts for personal gain.
In May 1991, however, during the compilation of evidence, Magistrate Carol Peralta declared that despite enough evidence to issue a bill of indictment, none of the cases could be prosecuted because they had been prescribed by law.
The law carries a prescription of five years in cases of corruption, meaning a person accused of corruption has to be brought to justice within five years of being indicted for the crime.