Ministry Defends Attorney General's Independence over Pl Criticism of Low Staffing

Malta Today
April 19, 2012

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Attorney-General-s-office-needs-more-investment-20120419

Defrocked priest Godwin Scerri was not charged with rape due to an error in the Attorney General's charge sheet.

Labour's spokespersons for justice and home affairs have blamed the lack of investment in beefing up the office of the Attorney General for a court decision Wednesday that turned down the prosecutor's request to charge a priest with child rape.

The court of criminal appeal threw out the Attorney General's request to have defrocked priest Godwin Scerri - jailed for five years for sexually abusing minors in his care - found guilty of rape, after a technical error was discovered in the original charge sheet, showing the crime happening in a place when it actually had happened in another.

The court upheld the objections raised by defence counsel Giannella de Marco who argued, through case law, that the prosecution had "ample time" to correct its own mistake on the charge sheet, but did not.

"The court's elaborate sentence explains that it was bound to the accusation as laid down in the charge sheet and that it was incumbent upon the prosecution to see that the charges were correct," Herrera said.

The two Labour MPs said a lack of investment in the prosecutor's office, which has recently seen a new influx of lawyers, had increased pressure on the office. "The justice ministry has to take responsibility for this," Herrera said.

Michael Falzon added that a new Labour government would address the interminable deferrals of so many court cases, and see that Maltese law is updated with some 12 rulings from the European Court of Human Rights.

"The Opposition has been complaining for some time now that the government takes too long in implementing human rights rulings from the ECHR - this is something we are raising in a motion on the home affairs and justice ministries."

In a statement, the ministry for justice said the court decision had nothing to do with staffing inside the Attorney General's office.

"The Attorney General's office is constitutionally independent and the ministry has no power to interfere in its administration," justice minister Chris Said said.

"It is worrying to see the Opposition claim that politicians are responsible for the Attorney General's decision. Political interference would undermine this office's independence."

Said said that the interested parties in the case never raised the matter of the incorrect charges with the prosecution, and that the Attorney General's decision not to go ahead with the correction was to avoid the case being prescribed.