Updated 5.12pm with parliamentary debate

Nationalist Party MPs failed to show up to a parliamentary committee meeting on Tuesday to discuss extending pre-trial arrest periods, fuelling speculation about the party being split on the issue.

The Consideration of Bills Committee was due to meet at 3pm to discuss a government plan to allow police to detain certain criminal suspects for a maximum of 102 hours.

Currently, police can only detain suspects for a maximum of 48 hours.

But committee chair Michael Farrugia was forced to suspend the session when none of the PN’s representatives had appeared by 3.20pm.

The PN no-show appeared to lend credence to statements made earlier on Wednesday by Justice Minister Jonathan Attard.

"This morning, the Opposition informed us that there was internal disagreement within the party on the issue," Attard said, adding that the PN's decision is blocking the change in law.

He described the Opposition’s stonewalling as “inconsistent and mediocre”.

PN says it was misled

PN whip Robert Cutajar said in parliament later on Wednesday that the government had verbally agreed to postpone the committee meeting, only to then renege on its word.

Fellow PN MP Karol Aquilina echoed that, saying the committee had met behind the Opposition's back. 

Committee chair Michael Farrugia said none of the PN committee members had ever requested to move the meeting, and claimed he had the emails to prove that.   

A change in Constitution

Changing the maximum period of pre-trial arrest requires a change in the constitution, meaning any amendments must be backed by the Opposition if they are to become law.

It is not clear where the PN stands on the issue.

The party had included a similar proposal in an omnibus anti-corruption bill it first tabled in parliament in January 2022. That motion, tabled by then-PN MP Jason Azzopardi, had proposed extending the pre-trial arrest period to a maximum of 72 hours.

That is shorter than the government proposal of granting police a maximum of 102 hours to press charges.

But while the government wants the extension to only apply to suspected crimes subject to jail terms of 12 years or more, the PN proposal linked extensions of pre-trial arrest periods to specific crimes, including ones such as  bribery or extortion of public officials that are subject to lesser prison sentences.

The proposal as presented by the PN in its 2022 omnibus bill.

The PN bill ended up going nowhere.   

Criticism of government plan

It remains unclear where the Opposition stands on the proposal.

PN MP Karol Aquilina, who serves as the party's justice spokesperson, insisted on Wednesday that the party was in favour of revising pre-trial arrest laws but had concerns about the "arbitrary" and "rushed" way the government was going about its plan.

"Let's give police better tools, but let's respect people's fundamental rights," he said. 

But PN MPs Joe Giglio, Mario de Marco and Carm Mifsud Bonnici all spoke critically of the government plan in the past weeks, describing the proposal as “excessive” and making it clear they opposed it.  

Maximum period reduced to 102 hours

Justice Minister Attard said that he had taken Opposition concerns on board and presented various amendments to the original plan, in an attempt to assuage them.

Chief among those amendments was a decision to restrict the maximum period of arrest to 102 hours, rather than the maximum 132 hours that the government was originally proposing.

The revised proposal would allow the police to request a 48-hour extension once the initial 48-hour arrest period is up, with a magistrate given six hours to make that decision.

Police would not be allowed to interrogate suspects during that six-hour period. 

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said the Opposition was blocking plans that would “give our police force more tools to fight organised crime”.

He implied that some Opposition MPs were against the idea because they want to safeguard the interests of their private legal practices, rather than policy reasons.

"Legislators must vote in favour of society, and not in favour of their own private clients. That is the worst form of politics," the minister said, without naming names.