The Gender-Based Violence Commission and women right activists have slammed a judgment which allowed a man found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman as she walked home from Paceville off with a suspended sentence. 

In a statement, the commission said that while it will not delve into the merits of the case, the decision sent the wrong message. 

Jurgen Zahra, from Żejtun was given "one last chance" by the Appeal's Court on Thursday, which suspended his sentence for four years and placed him under a three-year supervision order. 

He had violently attacked a woman after following her in his car as she walked near the Regional Road tunnels on June 26, 2011. He hit her several times on the head, put his hand over her mouth and was attempting to remove her underwear when she managed to break free.

Mr Zahra was charged with attempted rape, violent indecent assault, holding the woman against her will and causing her slight injuries while committing an offence which offended public morals.

The victim – a Hungarian woman who was living in Malta – fled the country the following day.  

Disturbing

The commission held that whoever is convicted of such crimes should be given an effective jail term. “This should be the norm and not the exception,” it said, adding that the message that should come across is one: that violence against women should not be tolerated. 

The commission said laws had recently been changed to increase the punishment for people convicted of such crimes so it hoped that the courts would hand down judgments that reflected this. 

Krista Tabone, a director of Victim’s Support Group, told Times of Malta when contacted that the decision was disturbing. 

“It concerns me that this can happen. It takes a lot for a victim of sexual assault to come forward. It can be very scary, they can feel at risk of retaliation and when they see results in similar cases like this, they can be put off from speaking out. The penalty simply doesn't fit the crime.” 

A question of age

The court was told how the accused now had a stable job and a relatively clean criminal record, save for a number of traffic violations. It was also reminded that he was just 20 at the time.

But Ms Tabone does not accept this argument. “The legal age of consent in Malta is 16. So, if the justice system feels a person is old enough at this point in their lives to understand the rules around consent, then they should also accept that his man was old enough to know better.”

Head of Litigation at law firm Guido de Marco and Associates Giannella De Marco, says part of the problem in Malta is that cases take too long to work their way through the system.

“The judge has to take into account that the person who stands before them today, is not the same person who they were eight years ago. If the case had been held in reasonable time, then the court might take a different view.

“But when the accused has shown that he has learned from his mistake, has matured and hasn't committed a crime since, then this has to be considered when sentencing. Does it serve society as a whole, better, to put a man in prison, when he seems to have turned his life around and used the last eight years positively?” 

In her ruling, Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrara said: “What the accused did was condemnable and cannot be tolerated in a civil society, especially when an innocent person walking in the street ended up attacked in this violent manner in an attempt to succumb to sexual acts. The incident certainly had an impact on the victim as well as on the country since the victim caught the next flight out of Malta.”

Mr Zahra was also fined of €1,150 and the payment of court expenses amounting to almost €1,650. 

Reports on the rise

The laws surrounding sexual assaults in Malta underwent a significant overhaul in 2017 and 2018 after the Istanbul Convention was ratified. It means the legal definition of rape is now tied to consent and includes more forms of unwanted sexual assault.

Ms Tabone says despite a rise in the number of people coming forward to report sexual assault, it still doesn’t reflect what’s really going on in Malta. “So far this year, we’ve had twice the number of women reporting sexual assaults – a jump from around 25 cases, to more than 50 in 2019."

"The type of cases has also become more varied. Before it usually related to unwanted advances made by a stranger, now it can often be about sex without consent, within a relationship.”