Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1163844
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 NEWS MATTHEW AGIUS A man jailed for glassing a bar- man in 2017, causing him a seri- ous and permanent eye injury, has had his sentence reduced by a year, after an appeals court judge ruled that he had turned his life around, whilst also ruling there was no evi- dence of anti-foreigner bias in the original judgment. Srdan Simic, 25, from Serbia, had been condemned to imprisonment for five years in 2018, after he was found guilty of very grievous bodily harm. Simic filed an appeal from this sentence. His lawyer, Roberto Montalto, argued that "there were manifest and serious elements of prejudice against the accused on the basis of the fact that he is a foreign na- tional." Montalto said that that the pre- siding magistrate, Joe Mifsud, had passed comments which had not been transcribed, "expressing him- self in disrespectful terms with re- spect to foreigners who break the law in Malta and how they should be treated more harshly than the Maltese." Whilst acknowledging that the punishment fell within the legal parameters established for the crime, the lawyer argued that the magistrate's attitude had affected the punishment. The Attorney General submitted that the allegations found no basis in the acts of the case and there- fore did not exist for the purposes of the appeal. In his judgment on the matter, Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja said that there was no evidence of what was being alleged by the lawyer and so had to reject the claim. Montalto had also argued that the punishment had been calculat- ed on the basis of the wrong article of the law. Simic had a clean criminal record and had attacked the barman as a reflex action in the context of an incident involving his friend, said the lawyer, adding that the actions hadn't been the result of bravado. Mr Justice Bugeja carried out an in-depth examination of the ele- ments of the crimes as charged. The deliberate use of a drinking glass as a weapon was classified as "arms improper" – as long as the glass remained intact as a blunt instrument. But the moment it smashed and broke up into sharp shards, the court said, it was trans- formed into "arms proper" – the same as any other sharp or pointed instrument. The judge also noted that the victim had suffered a permanent injury to his eye, which he had not been compensated for. Punishment must have re-edu- cational and correctional value, to encourage the delinquent to im- prove himself and live a decent life, as well as to be able to compensate his victims, said the court, making reference to Italian jurist Carn- elutti. "The sentence is distinct from punishment, although it has a re- pressive efficacy." Turning to the case in point, the judge said that jurisprudence had established that as a rule, offences against the person are to be pun- ished with imprisonment. He dis- missed comparisons, made by the defence to similar cases, saying that such comparisons, given the different individual circumstances, "could be odious." However, he also noted that the accused had recognised his re- sponsibility in the matter and had decided to change his life for the better – achieving tangible results in this regard. This change benefit- ed society as well as the offender, noted the court, and merited a "moderate tempering" of his pun- ishment. The Court of Criminal Appeal therefore reduced Simic's sentence by one year, jailing him for four years instead of five, and confirm- ing the rest of the sentence. No discrimination in thug's sentencing, after lawyer flags magistrate's comments A small group of creatives tasked by the Spazzju Kreattiv centre with an awareness project on "clean air" at the Ziguzajg chil- dren's festival has pulled out of their project, due to sponsorship from the Environment and Re- sources Authority. The environmental watchdog turned environmental villain when it raised no objection to the maligned Central Link road-wid- ening project, leading the crea- tives to abandon the project spon- sored by the ERA. "We all witnessed the ERA's de- cision when they were called to choose on the future: they voted to uproot trees and to expropriate farmers' land in order to widen the roads and fit more cars. This is a paradox, especially because it is the repetition of a non-sustainable idea of progress, which is debated and discussed all over the world," the group – project manager Kris- tina Borg, visual artist Nigel Bal- dacchino, and Maltese chef David Darmanin – said in their letter to the ERA. The group were approached by Irene Biolchini, an independ- ent curator based in Milan, to raise environmental awareness at the Ziguzajg festival – ideas in- cluded a record-breaking attempt by schoolchildren to create the world's biggest vegan sandwich, made from locally sourced ingre- dients and delivered using zero or negative carbon emissions. The projects from all artists were approved by Spazzju Kreattiv and budgets were allocated to each project. But once the artists realised the projects were being funded by the ERA, they pulled out of the pro- ject. "We worked on a programme that could involve all the different levels of the population, trying to meet the largest number of people possible: we felt that the only way to strengthen the discourse was to co-create with the public and ac- tually build up the artworks with the public," the artists wrote in their letter refusing to be part of the ERA-funded project. "As creatives and artists, we can't accept ERA's funding to sup- port a programme like the one we drafted. We feel that all the mes- sages developed would be drasti- cally negated. We cannot suggest alternative practices or be critical of our authorities and entities, and do so with the money of the same entity. "Similarly, we cannot seek local produce and collaborate with lo- cal farmers, and in doing so we use the money of the same entity that is expropriating their land. This is clearly a paradox. Just to mention an international example, current- ly there are debates put forward by a group of activists encourag- ing important art institutions to cut down on their sponsorships from companies that do not pro- mote sustainable practices." The group said they would still develop the project, collaborat- ing with society at large. "Let's work with the same public af- fected by the pollution and by the unsustainable decisions taken. Let's work with the community at large." Artists who refused ERA sponsorship over Central Link vote A national consultation docu- ment on 'trustworthy' Artificial Intelligence does not sufficient- ly address the social impact of automation and the jobs that will be lost as a result of AI, Malta's green party Alternattiva Demokratika said. In one of several responses to a consultation on ethical AI frameworks, AD said it was im- portant that Malta's future AI policy takes into consideration the impact on society and the labour market, treating AI more holistically. "Given that the costs of auto- mation may be less than the cost of labour, the consideration of the impacts of taxing automation would have been helpful. This could assist the consideration of whether and to what extent this could help counter the resulting social effects which should also be studied and discussed," Dan- iel Desira, AD spokesperson on the digital society, said. In 2013, two Oxford academ- ics, Carl Benedikt Frey and Mi- chael Osborne, predicted that 47% of American jobs are at high risk of automation by the mid- 2030s, after modelling the char- acteristics of 702 occupations and classified them according to their "susceptibility to comput- erisation". "AI brings new challenges to the sphere of worker's rights and to government revenue. A study of how the taxation system is necessary since lack of revenue threatens public services such as education and health care, amongst other things," Desira said. Desira said even education and training should be rethought in order to cater for the new reality of AI in the labour market, since other jobs may be created in oth- er areas while traditional jobs are lost in the process. Desira also said there was a great need for strong regulation on the use of technology. "There have been various failures and a new form of discrimination this time by AI systems in other countries, such as the indis- criminate use of facial recogni- tion software. Access to personal data is also an area of concern." Desira said AI could benefit other sectors, such as sectors of public service, health monitor- ing systems made more accessi- ble to people with low and me- dium incomes, and in renewable energy and energy efficiency. "Other suitable applications of AI would be in traffic manage- ment for example with research and the eventual introduction of smart traffic lights which may prioritise buses, rendering pub- lic transport a more attractive option for daily commutes." Study AI's effect on Maltese jobs, say Greens