Eighty court cases are currently waiting to be tried by a jury in Maltese courts, the majority of which are stalled due to a variety of legal issues, figures tabled in parliament on Tuesday revealed.
Some of these trials go as far back as 13 years, with one delayed court case dating back as far as February 2008.
Justice Minister Jonathan Attard tabled the figures in a reply to a parliamentary question by Opposition MP Karol Aquilina.
In Malta's justice system, jury trials are reserved for crimes that are deemed too serious to be heard before a court of magistrates.
Attard said that of the 80 pending jury trials, eight have had a trial date fixed and are on course to be held, while another seven are awaiting a trial date.
The remaining 65 cases, however, remain pending due to legal issues.
In some cases, the minister said, the cases are subject to constitutional proceedings which must be concluded before the case can go to trial.
In others, other related cases must be concluded first, or the cases are still in their preliminary stages.
Delays in Maltese courts have been flagged as an area of major concern by the EU, with criminal, civil and administrative proceedings all taking longer to be completed than the EU average.
Criminal cases in Malta take an average of 298 days to complete, more than double the EU median of 122 days. Delays are even longer for second-instance cases, which take an average of 534 days compared to the 104-day EU average.
The government has acknowledged that the criminal justice system requires reform and last year then-Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis hinted that one option being considered is to do away with the compilation of evidence stage that comes prior to trial.
Talks then began as to how to reform the criminal justice system, with sources telling Times of Malta that the intention is to remove certain parts of the compilation process, without doing away with it entirely.
The Chamber of Advocates said earlier this year that those talks are “at an advanced stage”.