Stop and search powers based 'on reasonable suspicion'

A European Court judgment, ruling that police stop and search powers in the UK were illegal did not "at face value" change the parameters of Maltese law based on reasonable suspicion, the Home Affairs Minister said.

However, the ruling would be evaluated by the Attorney General to determine its impact on Maltese legislation, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said.

In a case instituted by two people against the UK government, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that stop and search provisions under UK anti-terrorism legislation were too wide and interfered with an individual's right to privacy.

Broadly similar provisions exist in Malta, giving the police and the army stop and search powers described by the European Court as heightening the risk of individuals being victims of discrimination because they could be stopped on the basis of a "hunch" or "professional intuition".

Two leading criminal lawyers told The Sunday Times the police and army powers to stop and search people were too broad and gave rise to arbitrariness that could lead to discrimination.

However, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said Maltese legislation made it clear that stop and search powers could only be exercised if the police had reasonable suspicion.

"The ruling attacks the immense powers given to the police in the UK by the anti-terrorism law, which allows searches if it is expedient to do so. In Malta, the basis is one of reasonable suspicion and, so, I cannot see how this sentence, at face value, impinges on our state of affairs. However, I will await the Attorney General's legal advice on the matter," Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

He defended the notion of police searches and made a distinction between stopping someone to check on the car licence and stopping a car to perform a search for drugs.

"If somebody feels aggrieved by the way he is treated at a road block he has every right under our laws to seek redress," the minister said when asked whether in practice police officers and soldiers based their decisions to search vehicles and people on reasonable suspicion.

The principle of reasonable suspicion, he added, was the one being adopted for the law enabling the police to perform breathalyser tests and the law permitting Customs officers to search vehicles bringing over goods from Sicily.

Last year, the AFM said it carried out 140 road blocks, through which 1,159 vehicles were checked. A total of 67 individuals were detained for a variety of alleged offences.

Recently, the AFM said eight people were held at road blocks over the weekend: five of them were allegedly driving without a licence or valid insurance. However, the army failed to provide any information on how many vehicles were stopped and how many people were searched over the same weekend.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com