A heated argument between Labour MP Jose’ Herrera and Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg led to a five-minute suspension of the sitting as the House of Representatives was continuing its debate on proposals to amend the Criminal Code.
The sitting started with Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi referring to the Criminal Code Amendment Bill as an “unpolished diamond” with a lot of good initiatives that however needed some sort of fine tuning.
Dr Azzopardi said that an amendment for the obligation of disclosure should be inserted alongside that for the corroboration of evidence. At one point Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg rose and said that amendments were to be discussed and eventually adopted in committee stage. Dr Azzopardi also took issue with the relatively short period of time in which to launch an appeal.
Labour MP Jose’ Herrera recalled the arguments that used to take place in court by distinguished human rights lawyers such as Dr Vanni Bonello and Dr Tonio Borg himself but expressed his regret that the amendments being proposed by the government were contradictory. He said that although the Labour parliamentary group supported the bill, the group would vote against and call a division on those amendments which go against the spirit of fundamental human rights.
Dr Herrera said the party had made a commitment to remove the amendments which went against human rights and throw them “into the skip” when it was elected to government. He said that these amendments were continuing to strip the judiciary of its powers and this was creating a very dangerous situation as it would eventually reduce democracy.
At this point, Dr Herrera said that a previous Labour government had attempted to introduce legal reforms to strengthen the judiciary and these were completely opposite to the amendments being proposed now. He called the government MPs “a bunch of cowards” as Dr Borg rose on a point of order to request that Dr Herrera’s comments be struck off the register.
Dr Herrera said that it was scandalous to order a magistrate to ask permission from the Chief Justice to open an inquiry.
The Labour MP continued his tirade against the amendment regarding bail and as his argument with Dr Borg, who rose for another point of order, continued, the sitting was suspended by Deputy Speaker Carmelo Abela for five minutes.
Labour MP Joe Brincat spoke about the section regarding racial offences, saying that there were some grammatical inaccuracies in the bill. Regarding Article 5, Dr Brincat called for audiovisual recordings to be introduced as evidence in criminal trials too. He also expressed doubts on how Article 6 – which called for the adjournment of a case to a date not earlier than one month but not later than six weeks – could be enforced.
Dr Brincat also disagreed with Article 7 whereby the principle of paying court costs was being introduced and Article 8 which depended on the Chief Justice’s authority to open an inquiry. He also expressed reservations on Article 11 which deals with bail conditions.