The rule of law NGO Repubblika has called for the resignation of the home affairs minister and the police commissioner, saying that their decision two years ago to centralise the processing of domestic violence reports had exposed Bernice Cassar to clear danger and eventually, her murder.
Cassar was shot dead on Tuesday as she drove to work. Her husband, who is the chief suspect, was arrested at their home after a 17-hour standoff early on Wednesday.
Repubblika expressed its sorrow at the murder and expressed solidarity with women who are victims of the state's failure to protect them. It also expressed solidarity with activists seeking to bring about change for women.
The NGO recalled that on November 30, 2020, Home Minister Byron Camilleri and commissioner Angelo Gafà announced that they were centralising the processing of domestic violence reports.
This, the NGO said, made it far more difficult for victims to access, on time, the authorities who could hear and protect them.
Victims who wished to file a report at a police station were told to go back home, where the violence against them would have been committed.
When they went to police headquarters, they found hours-long queues. They either got disheartened on the day, or when they suffered fresh violence and they found it was not practical for them to file a fresh report.
Instead of keeping its promise to better handle reports of domestic violence, the government created new hurdles that scared the victims away.
Furthermore, the NGO said, the government's decision for domestic violence cases to be heard by just one magistrate, although they numbered in the thousands, meant that justice could not be served within a reasonable time, despite the clear danger the victims were in.
At present, people who reported a case of domestic abuse would only have their case heard in court in 18 months' time. It was a state of affairs which showed the victims that the state had no time for them, Repubblika said.
The NGO also pointed out that although a court had issued a protection order in favour of Bernice Cassar, the state had done nothing to ensure that this order had some form of effect. Although Cassar had subsequently reported other episodes of domestic violence, those reports were not handled any differently.
The protection order, therefore, had made the situation worse, creating a false sense of security which itself made the danger more serious.
These, Repubblika said, were political and administrative failures which had been evident well before Cassar's murder and the authorities had had a duty to prevent the consequences.
But the government had ignored calls by police officers, victims' lawyers, magistrates and court officials despite claiming that tackling domestic violence was a priority.
Repubblika said an independent inquiry would help establish the facts so that mistakes would not be repeated. It, therefore, augured that the task entrusted to judge Geoffrey Valenzia, who is heading an inquiry, would quickly bear fruit.
But the inquiry could not work serenely when it was known that the decisions taken by the minister and the commissioner had the direct consequence of exposing Bernice Cassar to clear danger and eventually, the brutal end of her life.
It was for this reason that there was no alternative for the two other than to assume responsibility for the decision that announced on November 30, 2020, and resign.