The court’s decision to grant convicted killer George Degiorgio prison leave was “insensitive”, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri told Parliament on Monday.
He said leave should not have been granted.
Such decisions in favour of people who committed the “most atrocious crimes” and who showed no form of remorse gave the impression that it is business as usual, Camilleri said.
Degiorgio was photographed attending a family baptism party on Friday night.
Together with his brother Alfred, George was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia after admitting to the crime last October. The brothers have since filed a court appeal demanding a retrial.
Degiorgio is also facing charges of being complicit in the 2015 murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop.
On Monday Camilleri was answering a question by Labour MP Randolph Debattista about whether the decision to grant him temporary leave was insensitive.
Camilleri confirmed that it was, adding that the Attorney General had objected to the request by Degiorgio’s defence lawyers to attend a baptism followed by a party.
The court, he said, had upheld the application.
The matter went before an Appeals Court which did not need to change the original decision.
Camilleri said the prison authorities simply followed the court’s decision.
“Justice has to be seen to be done also with the victims and their families. While prisoners have their rights, so do the victims and their families,” he concluded.
A Times of Malta fact-check found that, despite the court decision, Degiorgio still needed the approval of the prison director to be allowed out on prison leave.
The director of prison is appointed by Camilleri.
Have police started investigating hospitals' deal?
Meanwhile, answering questions by Nationalist MPs Beppe Fenech Adami and Mark Anthony Sammut about whether the police had started to investigate those responsible for the Steward contract, Camilleri said there was a pending magisterial inquiry about the matter.
A court on Friday condemned Steward Health Care, which took over the hospitals' concession from Vitals, as having intended to “unjustly enrich itself at the expense of citizens” and engaging in “possibly criminal behaviour”.
It annulled the controversial hospitals' privatisation deal originally signed with Vitals, declaring it to be “fraudulent”, and ordered that St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals be returned to the government within three months.
On Monday, Camilleri said: “gone are the days when politicians intervene in police investigations and they [the MPs] should not have even asked these questions".