Murder suspect challenges femicide law at European court

A man accused of murdering his partner is challenging Malta’s femicide law in the European Court of Human Rights.

Fabian Eliuth Garcia Parada is accused of the femicide of his former partner Sandra Milen Ramirez Prieto on January 13, 2024. She was found dead with stab wounds on her body on a bed inside a rental apartment in Sliema.

Parada’s criminal proceedings are still pending and were delayed due to multiple challenges of the femicide law by his defence team.

According to the criminal code, a homicide can be considered a femicide if a woman is killed as a result of domestic violence, honour killings, misogynistic intentions, religious practices such as genital mutilation, and sexual abuse.

Under the reform, the "crime of passion" defence, which has been used in the past to secure softer sentencing, will no longer be considered an extenuating factor when the judge decides on any punishment in the case of femicide. 

The accused’s argument is that, because his victim was a woman, he is barred from using the sudden passion defence. This would have been a valid defence for him to use if the victim had been male.

He said this creates a gender-based distinction in access to a legal defence and breaches his human rights.

The accused already tried challenging the law in the Maltese courts, but the case was dismissed. He had requested a constitutional reference before the Court of Magistrates, but is was dismissed as frivolous in February 2024.

He then filed a constitutional case, which was decided against him in October 2025. He appealed the decision with the Constitutional Court, but the appeal was refused in March 2026.

Both constitutional courts decided that, once the referral request was deemed frivolous, he could not pursue constitutional proceedings independently. The applicant argued that this violates his access to court.

The application was filed by lawyers Jose Herrera, Matthew Xuereb, Yanika Bugeja and David Camilleri.