• Requests first made to the police, then to a judge six months later.
• Only evidence that is admissible in court can be used.
• Inquiries will have a two-year deadline.
• Victims of crime can ask for an update after six months.
• Court experts must be individuals, not companies.
• Chief Justice to approve expenses of over €50,000 on court experts.

A new bill presented today is set to dramatically change how citizens can request a magisterial inquiry, directing them to approach the police first, before filing a request with a judge six months later.

The bill also says that only evidence that is admissible in court can be used to request an inquiry, while magistrates will have a two-year deadline to complete their work.

Meanwhile, it will also introduce a spate of new changes in how court experts are appointed and managed.

The current legal challenges available to people in cases where either the police or the Attorney General choose not to proceed with an inquiry will remain untouched.

Speaking at a press conference, Prime Minister Robert Abela said the reform would address the shortcomings of an “obscene legal framework causing huge injustices” that was forcing “innocent people” to have their lives turned upside down despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing.

The reform would “place greater responsibility” on all involved in the process, Jonathan Attard added, ensuring that those who should face justice do so.

While a reform of Malta’s magisterial inquiries has been a long time coming, even featuring in Labour’s 2022 electoral manifesto, this reform picked up speed in recent weeks in response to a series of requests filed by former PN MP Jason Azzopardi.

Reacting, Azzopardi said that landmark inquiries related to the hospitals scandal, 17 Black and the Panama Papers would not have happened if the proposed amendments were in effect at the time. The changes, he wrote on Facebook, represented a complete lack of trust in the judiciary.

In a statement, the Nationalist Party said that through the proposed changes, the government had confirmed it would be depriving people of the right to initiate such inquiries. 

"Robert Abela and [justice minister] Jonathan Attard want to seize power from the hands of the country’s magistrates and instead hand it over to the Police Commissioner," PN said.

Government sources say that Malta’s new procedures will most closely resemble the model adopted in France.

How can I request an inquiry?

In practice, anyone wishing to have a magisterial inquiry into an alleged crime opened will be required to first file a sworn request with the police, who will have a six-month window to determine whether there are grounds for investigation and, if so, to carry out their investigation.

If, after six months, the applicant is not satisfied with the police’s (in)actions, they can then take the matter to the criminal courts, asking a judge (rather than a magistrate, as is currently the case), for an inquiry to be opened.

Together with their request, they must submit evidence that is admissible in court, effectively wiping out the use of inadmissible evidence such as second-hand accounts or hearsay.

The courts will then proceed to summon the police to a closed hearing to question why they decided not to act upon the initial request.

The courts will also have to summon the subjects of the inquiry and whoever filed the request in the first place, to hear both sides of the story.

Government sources say the measures are intended to standardise procedures, doing away with current practice in which each magistrate operates in a slightly different manner.

Two-year deadline, greater disclosure

While the current law contains an oft-ignored provision saying that inquiries should be completed within 60 days, the new bill will extend this to six months.

But magistrates will now have a hard two-year deadline to complete their work.

Once the two years are up, the magistrate will have to send all the inquiry’s material to the Attorney General, whether the inquiry is ready or not.

At that point, the AG can choose from an array of options, including extending the magistrate’s inquiry (and kicking off a new two-year cycle), directing the police to investigate further, filing charges against the accused, or dropping the case altogether.

Meanwhile, if an inquiry has been going on for at least six months, the victims of the alleged crime or their relatives will be able to ask the AG for an update. They will also be given a copy of the inquiry and will be kept informed if the AG opts not to go ahead with prosecution.

And if the magistrate ultimately decides that the person requesting an inquiry made their request in an abusive manner, they could be ordered to pay for the inquiry's costs.

Court experts

The bill will also reform the appointment process for court experts while clarifying their roles, responsibilities, and the magistrate’s duties.

The bill will clarify that the magistrate’s role within the inquiry is to preserve evidence related to the case, while court experts are expected to establish facts related to the case in their respective field of expertise, rather than provide opinions on the possible crime.

Meanwhile, a magistrate will have to appoint individuals, rather than companies or groups of people, as court experts, to avoid a repeat of recent instances in which firms appointed as court experts shut down while proceedings were ongoing.

And while the current system gives magistrates an entirely free hand into who to choose as a court expert, the new system will ask magistrates to explain their choices.

Although the magistrate can still freely pick anybody listed on a court-approved list of court experts, they will need to justify the choice of any court experts not on that list, explaining why they were chosen and where their expertise lies.

Court experts will be expected to show knowledge of Malta's criminal law in the field in which they are experts and, if they are not already professionally accredited, will undergo a due diligence process at the hands of the Department of Justice and the Court Services Agency.

The reform will also rein in the cost of court experts, saying that experts are to be paid at a rate comparable to similar work in Malta, while the Chief Justice will be roped in to give the go-ahead if an inquiry is set to spend more than €50,000 on court experts.