The government is considering stepping in to halt proceedings against three students and a lecturer who are being controversially charged with hacking student app FreeHour.
In comments to Times of Malta, Robert Abela said the cabinet will discuss the case and decide "on whether to exercise its prerogative to extinguish these proceedings."
Times of Malta understands the prime minister was referring to the granting of a presidential pardon.
It is also reviewing the current legal framework to bring about changes that would ensure no one in similar circumstances faces criminal proceedings in the future.
Students Michael Debono, 22, Giorgio Grigolo, 21, and Luke Bjorn Scerri, 23, face charges of gaining unauthorised access to the application. Grigolo is also charged with making a change to the app, although he then reversed the application to its previous state.
Lecturer Mark Joseph Vella, 45, is charged with being an accomplice to these crimes, as he proofread an email the students sent to FreeHour, informing them of the vulnerabilities they found in their app.
All four are pleading not guilty.
On Thursday, the PN and new party Momentum called on the authorities to drop the charges and urged a reform of Malta's cybersecurity laws to protect ethical hacking.
The PN stressed the students and their lecturer were "simply doing what they were supposed to do" by exposing vulnerabilities in the Freehour application.
Abela said there was an ongoing process to review the existing legal framework and adjourn it to reflect today's realities "to avoid a repetition of these unnecessary criminal proceedings in similar scenarios".
The Prime Minister said the government was finalising the necessary legal amendments to reflect the feedback sought in a public consultation on the matter.
"Any changes to the current legal framework will arguably apply to any person facing pending charges.
"However, since the legislative process takes time and there is widespread agreement that the students and lecturer should not have their judicial process drag any further, the Cabinet will discuss this case and decide on whether to exercise its prerogative to extinguish these proceedings."