Updated 11.10am with GħSL reaction

Robert Abela did not prejudice the court case into Pelin Kaya’s murder when he said the courts needed to send a "strong message", days after she was killed, the standards commissioner has concluded.

Joseph Azzopardi was investigating a report filed by the law students’ organisation GħSL, which had said that comments made by the prime minister were tantamount to meddling in the judicial process.

Speaking in January 2023, four days after the 30-year-old was killed by Jeremie Camilleri, Abela had said that the courts must send “a strong message” both in considering requests for bail and, eventually, in sentencing.

These comments, the organisation argued, “not only prejudice the case”, but also overstep the separation of powers between the prime minister and the judiciary.

The family of Pelin Kaya place a portrait of her at the site where she was killed days earlier. Photo: Times of Malta

In its complaint, GħSL pointed to comments the prime minister had made regarding the Pelin Kaya case as well as his comments about private conversations with a magistrate on sentencing policies.

The organisation recalled the case of former chief justice Noel Arrigo, who was found to have had his right to a fair trial breached when then-Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami had held a press conference to discuss his case.

Arrigo was later found guilty of accepting a bribe to reduce the jail term of a convicted drug dealer, eventually serving just under two years in prison.

In his report, the standards commissioner dismissed this concern, saying that “there is a great difference” between Fenech Adami’s comments on the Arrigo case and those of Abela on the Pelin Kaya incident, given that the former had commented on a specific sentence issued by the courts.

“Separation of powers does not mean that a politician cannot comment in general terms about justice, reflecting public opinion on shocking incidents such as this,” the commissioner added, dismissing the case.

In a reaction, the GħSL-Malta Law Students' Society said the decision was a "missed opportunity to uphold a high level of ministerial standards". 

"The report fails, in our opinion to grasp the spirit of the Code of Ethics, which is to ensure that ministers respect the institutions," it said. 

The GħSL said that while it agrees that ministers may comment on events of public interest, this must be balanced with subsequent criminal proceedings. 

"GħSL believes that comments made by ministers urging the courts not to grant bail or encouraging jurors to be harsh with the accused, as recognized by the commissioner, violate fundamental human rights and do not meet the expected standards of ethics for persons in public life."

On Tuesday, Jeremie Camilleri was sentenced to 40 years in jail for Kaya’s murder, with the judge saying that she believes the sentence should have been higher.

Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera said she could not impose a life sentence because Camilleri pleaded guilty before a bill of indictment was issued in the case.

Camilleri had pleaded guilty to the crime, in which he brutally smashed into Kaya with his car as she was walking home in the early hours of 18 January 2023, shortly after celebrating her birthday.

He then emerged from the wrecked vehicle and flung stones at Kaya’s body, before being tasered by police.