The news that Yorgen Fenech was granted bail has once again highlighted the failure of our justice system. Who’s responsible for that? Robert Abela.
Think of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family and other families of victims of crimes – the children, the father, the sisters, the spouse of persons whose lives are brutally taken away or seriously traumatised. How would they feel when, sitting at the restaurant table next to them, is the person accused of the assassination of their loved ones?
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, there is one thing you must share with everybody else – a deep sense of resentment and bitterness at the utter failure of our justice system.
That deep sense of injustice was palpable as the news emerged that Fenech was granted bail. Many were absolutely outraged. The ultra-wealthy business mogul gets his life back while the journalist’s family submits to the latest indignity and injustice.
Many were angry at the judge, directing their invective at her. The judge, of course, was only applying the law. That raw anger, that seething wrath should not be directed at the exemplary judge. That fury should be directed at the man truly responsible for this depressing mess – Abela.
He’s been in power for five long years. He’s watched inactive as the justice system repeatedly delivered one devastating blow after another to the crime victims. He took no action as police and prosecution ‘mistakes’ led to one acquittal after another. The trial by jury of a man who’d been arrested over a heroin drug bust had to be postponed because of the prosecution’s late filings. Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera publicly berated the police for botching the case of a man caught hunting illegally on a public holiday. The court denounced the catalogue of “errors” which left it no choice but to acquit Jesmond Saliba.
Sixty-one-year-old Raymond Schembri was acquitted three times for illegal gambling after the police put the wrong date of the crime on the charge sheet. On a previous occasion he was acquitted because the address on his charge sheet was wrong. That same year he was cleared of operating an unlicensed casino from a Marsa garage because of a technical error by the prosecution.
A magistrate condemned delays caused by the prosecution in the notorious Lilu King case. The much-vaunted oil scandal case has still not concluded and, instead, the main suspect, Tancred Tabone, won €7,000 in damages for breach of his rights.
A man was cleared of domestic violence against his own mother and sister after the police put the wrong year on his charge sheet. Another man accused of aggravated theft was acquitted because of another error on his charge sheet even though the man filed a guilty plea. A convicted rapist wanted in Bulgaria was released after the authorities failed to make the necessary arrangements for his deportation within the period established by law.
The grieving parents of a woman killed by a speeding motorist watched in disbelief as his supercar involved in the fatal incident was handed back to him after a police error.
The second Vitals case has ended up in legal limbo and an 11-hour sitting had to be nullified after one of the accused was absent from the court room. The accused wasn’t even notified about the proceedings. Angelo Gafà and Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg messed up the whole process to the benefit of the accused – former Labour ministers Chris Fearne and Edward Scicluna, among others.
Our justice system exists solely to protect the wealthiest, the best connected and the most powerful and their friends- Kevin Cassar
The country watches in consternation as Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi, Brian Tonna, Adrian Hillman, Paul Apap Bologna and, now, Fenech continue to enjoy their life with no end in sight to their botched prosecutions.
Armin Ernst and Ralph de la Torre haven’t even been charged. Neither has Pilatus Bank’s Ali Sadr Hasheminejad.
Abela has not lifted a finger despite the years that rolled by since the court ordered former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar be investigated over his leaks to middleman Melvin Theuma.
Abela’s done absolutely nothing over the failure to prosecute Ian Abdilla for failing to investigate Labour’s Mizzi and Schembri over the Panama Papers.
He hasn’t even faced disciplinary procedures.
Abela actively and viciously intimidated magistrates doing their duty to defend Muscat.
He bullied from his pulpit those members of the judiciary who dared call for investigation and prosecution of Labour officials and Labour insiders in their inquiries. Now he plans to deprive us of the right to request magisterial inquiries.
Despite the repeated damning EU rule of law reports condemning court delays Abela did nothing. The EU rule of law report from 2021, one year after Abela took office, found that “serious challenges” remain
regarding the efficiency of the justice system, in particular the length of court proceedings. It highlighted the “deep corruption patterns” that were uncovered by the Caruana Galizia inquiry. It bemoaned the fact that “investigations continue to be lengthy”. Rosianne Cutajar, Amanda Muscat, Clayton Bartolo, Clint Camilleri, Danjel Bogdanovic, Justyne Caruana allegedly benefitted from tens of thousands of euros of taxpayers’ money and never faced prosecution. But a starving man was remanded in custody after stealing a can of tuna. Phyllisienne Brincat was prosecuted for expressing her religious beliefs.
But Fenech is free after five years in detention waiting for his trial, hence, not because he’s been found innocent but because our justice system is a depressing disaster.
There is nobody in this country who believes our justice system delivers justice. Everybody knows our justice system exists solely to protect the wealthiest, the best connected and the most powerful and their friends, no matter how incontrovertible the evidence against them.
And that’s exactly how Abela intends to keep it.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.