Suspects being interrogated by the police can ask to consult their lawyers come February 10 when a law unanimously agreed upon in Parliament seven years ago finally comes into force.

Although this may make life difficult for the police, the European Court of Human Rights has in recent judgments repeatedly affirmed legal counsel to be a right.

The Justice Ministry yesterday published a legal notice announcing that a number of articles in the Criminal Code, which were previously "not yet in force", will finally be implemented.

The changes will also mean that a person's refusal to have a DNA sample taken or his failure to mention important facts after seeking legal counsel could be used against him in court.

At the end of last year, Nationalist backbencher Franco Debono absented himself from Parliament, jeopardising the government's one-seat majority, and later said one of the reasons for his action was the government's procrastination on this law.

The Labour Party this week called for the law's immediate introduction and gave notice of a parliamentary motion.

The motion was to be presented by Labour spokesmen José Herrera and Michael Falzon, who said that if the motion were to be approved the legal notice would have to be published within 30 days.

Last week, Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said on TVM the legal notice would only be introduced once the police had DNA-testing equipment in their possession.

Contacted yesterday, a ministry spokesman said the call for tenders for the equipment would be issued on Monday and should arrive soon after the law came into force.

Police Commissioner John Rizzo last month told The Sunday Times that, although the right to legal counsel had to be introduced, the police had to be prepared for its introduction and "find other modern means to make up for the drop" in the rate of solving crime.

He had pointed out that the police investigated in the name of society: "So if my power is weakened, it's society's power which will diminish.

"The rate of admissions will not remain the same with the presence of a lawyer because if he sees the suspect is about to incriminate himself, he'll stop him from confessing and society suffers as a consequence."

But Dr Herrera, who yesterday said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the minister's decision, said arguments that put the collective interest before an inherent right of an individual no longer held water.

Labour said it was clear that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi took this decision not out of conviction but because of "panic" and "fear" at the fact that he did not have a majority in Parliament. The legal notice published in the Government Gazette yesterday said articles 355AT, 355AU, 255AZ and sub-articles 2, 3 and 4 of article 355AX found in article 74 of the Criminal Code would all come into force.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com