Prime Minister Abela's reform on magisterial inquiries is anti-democratic and an act of fascism, Robert Aquilina, representing Fondazione Falcone, said in a social media post on Thursday.

"With his reform on inquiries, Robert Abela is removing the effective power from the Courts and putting it in the hands of Anglu Gafa and Victoria Buttigieg so that they can completely close the doors of justice for the honest citizen," he wrote.

Aquilina stated that in doing this, Abela is "burying justice once and for all in our country". He continued that through Police Commissioner Gafa and Attorney General Buttigieg, the Prime Minister is "openly proclaiming the rule of delinquency".

citizens' right to request a magistrate's inquiry is also being dismantled - Repubblika

Repubblika reacted to the government statement. "It appears that the government intends to completely eliminate the usefulness of citizens' right to request a magistrate's inquiry, despite the fact that this right has led to the prosecution of serious corruption cases, including the sale of hospitals. With the changes the government wants to implement, this prosecution would not have been possible."

The government is saying that before citizens have access to the courts, they must first go to the police and cannot take action until six months have passed, Repubblika said. "The police are a branch of the government and fall under government ministers. As we have experienced in our country over the past ten years, the police have repeatedly refused to investigate and act on grand corruption. Citizens' access to the judiciary has allowed us to appeal to a branch that is constitutionally independent of the government to uphold the law, even when high-ranking government officials break it. The freeze on access to the judiciary will mean that criminals will have six months to hide evidence, and magistrates will not be able to preserve evidence while waiting for these six months to pass."

The organisations said that the process the government describes after the six months is first and foremost to examine why the police did not act, rather than to start the long-awaited inquiry.  "This is identical to the existing process where individuals can challenge the police in court for failing to act on a complaint. This court review of police conduct is another delay created by the government before an investigation into alleged crimes-already known for at least six months-can even begin, giving criminals more time to evade justice if they are ever pursued."

"The government is saying that in the request for an investigation that must first be submitted to the police, citizens can only provide evidence that is admissible in court. The collection of admissible evidence is the job of the investigation and subsequently the requested inquiry. It is the police who conduct investigations and the magistrate who conducts the inquiry who have the legal power to collect admissible evidence-using the power of arrest and seizure, which no ordinary citizen has or can have. A mere indication of a crime does not itself lead to someone's conviction. However, it should-just as it does today-lead to a serious investigation, and if and when evidence is found, it should be gathered and used in a court process that determines an individual's guilt or innocence. When the police request an inquiry today, they do not go to the magistrate with court-admissible evidence; they go with a reasonable suspicion of a crime to initiate investigations and start the inquiry. The government is imposing a higher standard-one that is intentionally impossible to meet-on ordinary citizens."

"From what we understand of the government's proposal, the last remaining tool in the fight against corruption is being removed, ensuring impunity for the corrupt. Just as we have laws supposedly against corruption, for whistleblower protection, and for freedom of information that are designed not to function, now the effectiveness of the law on citizens' right to request a magistrate's inquiry is also being dismantled. It is therefore clear that the Maltese state is more than ever captured by the mafia-an organized criminal group whose primary goal is to guarantee impunity for criminals when they steal, ensuring that no state institution remains capable of stopping them."