Second reading discussions on the heated magisterial inquiry reform continued in Parliament on Wednesday and both sides of the Chamber remain vehemently split on whether to oppose or endorse the proposed Bill 125.

During Wednesday's plenary session, the Nationalist Party pointed out that the proposed reform will not only deny citizens of their "fundamental right" to go to a magistrate for help - Bill 125 as it stands, if passed, will also "kill" all ongoing magisterial inquiries that have been ongoing for over two years, once six months elapse following the introduction of this Bill.

"You are trying to introduce this law because you know you have black smoke. You know that with magisterial inquiries as they are, you will be incriminated for your corruption and be sent to prison. This reform will save the criminals you support from being imprisoned," PN's Karol Aquilina said on Wednesday.

On behalf of the PN, Karol Aquilina stated that the government wants to close inquiries after two years, irrelevant whether investigations have concluded or not, and that the government also believes that six months is a sufficient length of time for these investigations to be completed. He described that this would place a guillotine over the time investigations from magisterial inquiries take.

While Aquilina agreed that it is unideal for inquiries to require years to be concluded, he declared that the State should not be the one to decide when investigations should be closed, rather than the inquiring magistrate.

"This government wrote in this law to kill all pending magisterial inquiries," he said.

PN's justice spokesperson argued that with the introduction of Bill 125, magisterial inquiries investigating the respective deaths of Raymond Caruana, Karin Grech, and Daphne Caruana Galizia, as well as investigations into Electrogas, the Montenegro wind farms, the Panama Papers, and "dozens of other [scandals]" that have been open for over two years would be forced to be sent over to the Attorney General and be closed for good.

"This is scandalous. You should be ashamed that you don't want us to learn the truth about grave things that happened in our country," Aquilina commented.

Aquilina also argued that through cases in recent years, the Maltese know better than to fully trust the police to investigate certain cases, and that therefore, citizens should retain their "fundamental right" to take open investigations through a magistrate instead.

Referencing the Egrant and 17 Black cases, he noted that investigations into these scandals would have never been opened if it weren't for the present structures of magisterial inquiries; Aquilina recalled how high-ranking officials have only been brought to court for these cases because the police were circumvented, rather than in spite of this fact.

"The way the government is acting at the moment is the same negative and dangerous attitude that led to people in this country killing others without facing the deserved consequences," Aquilina said.

"This is a law which we don't need. A needed law would be to better support magistrates, not shove them away. If need be, we should empower magisterial inquiries and this right, not promote secrecy over transparency," Aquilina added.

He also explained that in its discourse, the government is lying about evidence being a present requirement to open a magisterial inquiry, calling this "clear heresy."

Concluding his speech, the PN MP appealed for PL MPs not to deny citizens of their fundamental rights, as well as to have the courage to vote in favour of what they believe in, and avoid repeating the remorse felt following the infamous vote that initially rejected opening the Sofia public inquiry.

Aquilina's colleague, PN's Charles Azzopardi, expressed disgust that amidst the country's most prevalent issue today, the increasing cost of living, the government's main priority is to fast-track this reform.

"This reform is calling for more power to be handed to the police and the police commissioner, but we know that Gafà is the Prime Minister's puppet," he said, "The government finds itself in a state of panic because it is trying to save its skin. It is a dirty, corrupt, and thieving government."

Reform will stop PN extremists from harming innocent lives - Owen Bonnici

Former Justice Minister Owen Bonnici rebutted that the proposed reform features many positives, bolsters citizens' rights, and is aimed at stopping "extremists from the PN faction" to use the Courts to destroy the lives and reputations of innocent people.

Bonnici declared that the government has full faith within the Police Force, unlike the Nationalist Party. He said that the Opposition is only motivated by hatred and envy towards those who serve the government within the Cabinet or even the Public Service.

"The extremist PN clique aims to destroy and shatter not just the government's frontliners, but also their partners and the hard-working civil service," the Culture Minister said.

In this regard, Bonnici said it was "shameful" for Aquilina to state that the reform is being introduced so that the government can kill people.

On this point, he added that the killers in this case are the ones who "bring forward accusations against innocent people, incur them large court fees and destroy their reputation, only for them to be liberated of any sentence years later after the damage has been done."

"This is very dangerous," Bonnici noted, "I appeal to Maltese families to see how this side of the Chamber is acting while in Opposition; imagine how they'll act if they are elected to govern."

Bonnici commended Justice Minister Jonathan Attard for his work on this Bill and wished him luck that cuts out all such abuses.

After calling Jason Azzopardi "a liar by evidence and by his own admission," Bonnici outlined some positives the government notes from Bill 125.

He described that the Bill will grant victims the right to get updates on investigations every six months and will also place a stricter limit on investigative budgets. He explained that if a budget is to be exceeded, it must first require approval.

Bonnici continued that through this reform, citizens will have the right to go to a judge if the police have not functioned properly after six months. Following this step, a judge may then decide if an inquiry should be opened or not.

"We need serious rules so that these inquiries cannot be used to abuse other people," Minister Bonnici said.

Concluding his intervention, the Minister appealed to the members of the Opposition to "not listen to the clique of extremists within you" but to "listen to what you believe is correct, and what is correct is having inquiries that promote correctness."

On behalf of the government, Edward Zammit Lewis stated that some people have committed suicide after learning that were going to be inquired against, highlighting the dangers that the government intends to address.

He also shared to the Chamber that concerns have been raised within EU fora, particularly by the Venice Commission, that "in recent times, the number of inquests has been increasing and the length of these inquests have been increasing as well as they have transpired into full-on investigations."

Additionally, he read out from the Commission's opinion from its 2018 report that victims "should not be able to choose an avenue of criminal investigation."