An overhaul of Malta’s court system will seek to drastically shorten or possibly do away with lengthy pretrial proceedings in criminal cases.
A proposed rewrite of the judicial process is at an advanced stage and Times of Malta understands a proposal will be presented to Cabinet ministers in the summer. However, it is not clear when the government intends to make this public.
A source working on the reform said one idea being considered is for lawmakers to shorten what is known as the compilation of evidence stage in criminal proceedings.
The process is a pretrial stage in criminal court cases during which the prosecution presents all its evidence before a magistrate. Although this is not the final trial of the accused, the defence and even lawyers representing victims have the opportunity to ask questions of witnesses and can also file separate proceedings that can further delay the process.
If the case carries a punishment that goes beyond the remit of the Magistrates’ Court, the accused will then go before a judge where all those who testified in the compilation of evidence will be brought back to court to testify all over again.
This process is often blamed for the long delays in delivering justice in Malta.
For instance, while a US jury this month found Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of the 2020 murder of black man George Floyd, the two Armed Forces of Malta soldiers accused of the 2019 murder of migrant worker Lassana Cisse here is still stuck at the pretrial stage despite the two having been charged in court nearly a year earlier.
Most notably, the nation has been glued to the arduous compilation of evidence of the men accused of carrying out and commissioning the 2017 assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. However, with no end to this stage in sight, it could be a few more years before the alleged killers face a verdict from a jury panel.
Last year, an EU report had found that court cases in Malta take between double and eight times as long to be concluded as the European average.
Malta had emulated the British legal system in having the compilation of evidence stage prior to a criminal trial but, in the UK, this was removed to speed up the process while Malta retained it.
Zammit Lewis: Reform to make justice system more efficient, effective
Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis hinted last year that a reform of the court systems was on the cards. Contacted for comment, he said the criminal procedure in its entirety is under an in-depth review.
“This is aimed to further strengthen our justice system by ensuring that it is efficient and effective,” he said.
It is understood that the in-depth reform being prepared by a team at the Justice Ministry has looked to the reform in the UK while also considering other systems introduced across the EU in recent years. The preferred option is for major cases to go straight to trial with others having a shortened compilation stage. However a source said the reform was still being ironed out.
This, the source noted, would entail a redrafting of several legal provisions, such as those dealing with the determination of bail applications, the admissibility of statements and expert evidence and the means for ensuring that witnesses attend trials.
Other provisions that would need to be changed include those determining the offences dealt with in a trial by jury.
Times of Malta’s source said the experts were also looking at the provisions dealing with the requirement of legal aid and a rewrite of the framework for the pretrial procedure, including deadlines that would need to take account of the limited period for remanding someone in custody.
Meanwhile, although the speeding up of the judicial process may go down well with the general public, it could be a tricky issue to navigate with criminal lawyers.
Sources close to the reform conceded that the legal profession would likely apply political pressure to see the reform stopped in its tracks but said that lawmakers would have to stick to their guns if the reform was to work.
“Let us say that this is certainly a matter that the government will have to consult the legal profession on before forging ahead with,” the source said.