Those who now express shock at the Minister for the Interior, his assistant, the Police Commissioner etc in the case of the mix-up regarding a man who was accused of something he did not do, would do well to be more nuanced in their expressions of shock.

For we all know where the present minister got his training in politics and government from. Whenever you have lawyers who act in the criminal court you will inevitably get close links that many times go beyond the roles of accused and defender lawyers.

This has always been the case. It is not ideal, and it leads to suspicions of collusion but there you are: Malta is a small country and if far bigger countries like our neighbours cannot escape suspicions and allegations of collusion, we cannot escape being in the same situation and maybe worse.

This suspicion goes beyond the lawyer sector: it can be more or less the same if we have a case of an architect MP and his links to construction companies and developers. It would be more or less the same if it were a case involving an accountant MP and people who used to be his clients.

In this case the minister’s assistant has been accused of somehow involving a man charged with an attempted murder to contact this person who was wrongfully accused. What has added to the complexity of the case is the fact that the present minister was this person’s defence lawyer and that the attempted murder was of none less than that of the former prime minister’s personal assistant.

Back in those days, the Sunday sister paper had pointed out the incongruency of the ramifications of this case and the composition of the defence team, of which the present minister was but one member, together with the daughter of the then Deputy Prime Minister. The paper was later taken to court where the defence team argued that lawyers are officers of the court and the paper lost the case.

Beyond the minutiae of the case, 20 years or so later, the same issue is there staring in the face and there is still unease, to put it mildly, that there can be so much familiarity between a person who was accused of a grievous crime and a person who is now minister of the Interior and responsible, as happens in this case, for both the Police and the Army.

This is in effect a rather tame case, although it is definitely not so for the person who was wrongfully arraigned. Even the composition of the board of inquiry that has been set up to investigate this mix-up has been called into question.

It all boils down to the question whether the State and its highest authorities have enough moral and legal clout to enforce transparency and open justice and to insist as much as they can on the rule of law for one and all. If this bulwark is not there, or if its strength is weakened, no amount of laws and regulations can save the country. At the same time, this very thin line is the essence of freedom and democracy.

Justice and the rule of law are very delicate matters and no country, least of all ours, can afford slip-ups where innocent people get targeted. Obviously, this applies to all people living in the land, for it is not unheard of for people to exclaim that there is one system of laws for the Maltese and another for people who are foreigners.

Once again, however, one is left to wonder at what level of cultural preparedness and technical competence does our police force possess. Beyond the contrasting charges and accusations in the political area, the entire country surely wishes for a more competent, efficient and respectful force. And also for a force that knows how to say Sorry if and when it errs.