More than 100 criminal cases are awaiting trial by jury, with three of them pending since the bill of indictment was issued in 2008, official figures show.
Data provided by the Justice Ministry shows there are 102 pending cases for which a bill of indictment has been issued. They involve 119 individuals.
The figures were also tabled in parliament by Justice Minister Jonathan Attard in reply to a parliamentary question by Opposition MP Karol Aquilina who asked for details about the number of accused individuals, the number of pending trials, the number of trials by jury that have been appointed, and the reason why the others have not been appointed yet.
According to the statistics, 13 trials by jury involving 16 defendants have been appointed, which means that the pre-trial stage had been concluded. Another seven cases are waiting for a date for the trial to start.
According to the figures, one case dates back to 2009, two to 2012, four each to 2013 and 2014, six to 2015, eight to 2017, another eight to 2018, three to 2019, six to 2020, 11 to 2021, 40 to 2022 and five since the beginning of the year.
Before a trial the defendant can file submissions on legal points, in legal jargon known as preliminary pleas and on which the presiding judge will decide prior to hearing the actual case.
A total of 96 individuals involved in 82 trials are still waiting for their pre-trial submissions to be heard. The delays are for a number of reasons, including constitutional proceedings which have to be decided before the case can go to trial.
Some of the defendants have other cases pending before different courts. Other cases are still in the preliminary pleas stage, or are awaiting a report from psychiatric experts, the ministry said in its reply.
No details were given on which cases are still pending and those which are due to be heard so as not to prejudice the case.
The sources said the majority of cases before the constitutional court involve complaints regarding statements given by the defendants to the police during their interrogation, without legal assistance. The right to legal assistance was enshrined in Maltese law in 2016 following the insistence of former Nationalist MP Franco Debono who had lobbied to change the old system under which no legal representation during police questioning was allowed.
The government eventually allowed defendants to consult a lawyer of their choice prior to questioning and later introduced the right for a lawyer to be present during the interrogation, bringing Malta in line with several other European countries.
In those cases which took place prior to 2016, several defendants have been raising the issue of whether their human rights had been breached when they were not allowed to have a lawyer present during interrogations.
The courts have been sporadic in their decisions on this matter, ordering the removal of statements in some cases and turning down the argument in others.
Sources said there may be some cases that are still pending because the prosecution is awaiting the outcome of cases against an accomplice whose testimony would be needed during the trial. According to law, the testimony of a co-accused in not acceptable during criminal proceedings.