Pardons to witnesses involved in crime should not be given by Cabinet but by the Attorney General, civil society group Repubblika said.
In a statement on Sunday, it said an amnesty should not be a political tool, much less a tool in the hands of people potentially implicated in evidence that is to be given.
The need for Cabinet to be stripped of its power to grant amnesties, it said, was not only being felt now that Vince Muscat (il-koħħu) had to give evidence that could implicate a past and a sitting minister. It was first felt when former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri was arrested for the first time and Cabinet had to decide whether to pardon someone who could testify against him.
Muscat has requested a second pardon to reveal more on two failed armed robberies and an assassination. While on the witness stand earlier in March, he made a cryptic reference to a “big job” allegedly involving former minister Chris Cardona as well as an unnamed sitting minister.
Repubblika said it should be the Attorney General, who without political interference, should decide on pardons after consulting with the police commissioner and the victim or victims of the relevant crime.
The AG’s decision should be subject to consideration by a court of appeal that could verify that the amnesty was given according to criteria clearly established in the law.
Repubblika said there should be separate provisions for judicial or quasi-judicial processes for pardons given for compassionate reasons which have nothing to do with pardons given for one to turn state witness.
In the current circumstances, the group said, no one can trust the current cabinet to take decisions of a judicial nature "serenely and impartially" since a member could be facing the possibility that evidence may be given against him.
It would be abusive for the government to exercise this "expired and anti-democratic" power given by the Constitution, Repubblika said, adding that none of those who had written the Constitution and trusted the responsibility to ministers had envisaged that ministers themselves could be implicated in crime.