A group of 95 people sceptical about COVID-19 have filed a civil court case against the Superintendent of Public Health, Charmaine Gauci, saying the “disproportionate” measures are unconstitutional and breach the European Convention on Human Rights.
The group filed the court case on Tuesday, the same day Health Minister Chris Fearne said Malta has reached a COVID-19 vaccination rate of 90 per cent.
The court case was unveiled in a statement by civil society groups Human Health Alliance (HHA) and the Natural Health Community (NHC), which are both lending support to the applicants.In their statement, the organisations provided a list of the rights “violated” due to the measures.
These included fundamental rights to freedom of movement within and beyond Malta, freedom to congregate, including in churches, the right to privacy and family life, and the right not to be forced into isolation or quarantine unless clearly and properly diagnosed and certified to be sick.
The HHA was the lead organiser behind July’s anti-lockdown and vaccine sceptics protest march. Last November, 65 people filed a judicial protest against Gauci and Fearne, accusing them of causing “national panic” over the pandemic.
'Health authorities will have to come clean'
The HHA and NHC referred to this judical protest, arguing that the health department refused to provide evidence-based scientific facts to explain the use of the measures.
“The inexistence of such evidence-based science has, in fact, led over the last few months to a plethora of court judgments throughout Europe and beyond that found against the governments of the respective jurisdictions,” they said.
“Now, that a constitutional challenge has been filed, the health department will finally have to come clean before the court, with all the data, statistics and policy documents that it has refused to make public in 18 months."
'Bull-headed' Gauci 'tightened the screws'
The statement notes that several courts have declared similar draconian and repressive measures in European nations to be “illegal and sometimes unconstitutional”.
They say that Gauci failed to take judgments into account but remained “bull- headed and stubborn” to push more measures forward. She “tightened the screws” and issued more draconian measures, even shutting borders.
“Tens of thousands of tourists cancelled their summer holidays as a result, at a time when respiratory infections and transmission are at their lowest.
”The applicants are also contesting the imposition of the vaccine to prohibit Maltese citizens from travelling overseas unless fully vaccinated or by imposing quarantine.
According to current health rules, unvaccinated people travelling to the island are required to undergo mandatory quarantine on arrival.
Vaccinated people in contact with COVID-19 cases can now spend seven days in quarantine instead of 14 days. The health authorities have insisted that the tight measures were necessary to keep COVID-19 numbers under control.