I read with interest your reports about the ongoing saga of the former National Bank of Malta shareholders. I understand that the government’s position is that when the former shareholders had started court proceedings in 1977, the case was time-barred, since the nationalisation of the National Bank took place in 1973, and prescription at the time was two years.
Readers may find it rather odd, and inexplicable, how the present PN government is sending out numerous judicial letters asking for payment of legal fees, court fees, etc., when the government knows that such fees (not all, of course) are time-barred. Some have been time-barred since 2006!
What is more inexplicable is that these letters are being sent by the Attorney-General’s Office. Surely, the Attorney-General knows – or should know – more than anybody else, when such claims are time-barred. Up to July 2007, time-barring for similar claims was two years. From August 2007 it became five years. I am sure that some people who have received such letters but didn’t know that the Attorney-General’s claim was time-barred according to law, may have been intimidated by the Attorney-General’s warning of legal action and the issue of executive mandates and paid them withoutseeking legal advice.
It is said that ‘justice should not only be done, but seen to be done’. In such cases, not only justice is not being done, or seen to be done. A travesty of justice is being done!