Murders in Malta outpace court verdicts four to one – Daphne Foundation report

Malta’s persistent court delays mean murders are outpacing resolved cases at a rate of four to one, a new report published by the Daphne Foundation has found.

While Malta has experienced an average of six murder cases per year between 2010 and 2024, only 1.5 cases are resolved annually, the report says.

Almost half the arraignments for murder between 2010 and 2020 remain in legal limbo, with court proceedings pending.

Of the 36 cases that proceeded to trial, victims’ families waited an average of four years from arraignment to verdict.

Describing this as a “shockingly poor record in delivering justice for wilful homicide”, the report argues that judicial delays “erode public trust” and negatively impact the emotional well-being of victims’ families.

The delays also have judicial impacts, the report says, often leading to acquittals and the loss of crucial evidence as witnesses’ recollections are lost over time.

The findings suggest that the backlog in cases is set to continue increasing, “with the inevitable consequence that some will fail to be concluded even decades after the murder takes place”, the report says.

Still no charges in quarter of recent cases

Meanwhile, over a quarter of the 88 murders carried out between 2010 and 2024 in Malta have still not resulted in formal murder charges at all, according to the report’s findings.

All 24 cases in which no charges were brought all date back to before 2018, when the police’s budget received a bump of €8m following Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Of these 88 cases, five remain unresolved because the suspect or accused died (or was killed) before the trial even started.

A further three cases got stuck when the accused or suspect absconded.

The report found that, typically, cases involving female victims were resolved more quickly than those involving male victims, while cases related to foreign victims dragged on for longer than those of Maltese victims.

Court delays persist

Malta’s court delays have frequently come under the spotlight, with the EU justice scoreboard, which excludes violent crime from its analysis, finding that Malta is among the slowest countries in Europe to deliver justice. Meanwhile, a recent EU rule of law report flagged Malta’s courts as an ongoing concern.

Last week, new data presented in parliament revealed that there are 253 trials by jury pending in Malta’s courts, with the lion’s share of them unable to start as they await the conclusion of other proceedings.

The delays persist despite Malta now spending more per person on courts than all but two other EU countries.

Nevertheless, Malta still has fewer judges per 100,000 inhabitants than almost all other EU countries and still lags behind on the use of digital technology, a situation the report describes as “counterintuitive” given the expenditure.

The report calls on the criminal code to be amended to ensure that trials kick off no longer than two years after suspects are indicted and to provide better safeguards against delaying tactics by defence lawyers.

It also echoes calls for the number of judges and magistrates to be increased and for court deputies to play a more active role in administrative issues related to cases.