Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1283588
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 AUGUST 2020 OPINION released against a deposit of €5,000, and a personal guaran- tee of €15,000. In this case, however, there was an ominous twist. Some four years after the Qormi hold-up, the same Vincent Muscat was himself the victim an attempt- ed murder: when he somehow survived being shot three times in the head at close range, while parking his car in Msida. And what do you know? The man who was later charged with this crime (Jonathan Pace, of Tyson Butcher fame, who went on to be killed in an as-yet unsolved shooting at his Fgura home) was also granted bail: this time against a personal de- posit of just €1,000… I could go on, of course: for there is no shortage of other examples, where people have been granted bail even for the most serious crimes imagina- ble… sometimes, only to com- mit even more serious crimes during their provisional liber- ty – but I reckon the point has been made. Faced with a seemingly end- less series of bail decisions that are, at best, questionable – and at worst, downright bizarre – people are perfectly justified in feeling that the Maltese crim- inal justice system has, on the whole, let them down rather badly. For this is another point we can score up for Joe Mifsud: he is right to argue that the justice system also exists to guarantee a degree of safety within our communities. And it is just slightly difficult to feel entirely safe in your own home, when hardly a day passes by (or so it seems, anyway) without news that yet another potentially dangerous criminal has been prematurely released from cus- tody, with scant regard for all the possible consequences. Meanwhile, there are oth- er discernible problems with the entire legal infrastructure surrounding bail: it is not just a matter of whether the law- courts should, or should not, grant provisional liberty in any given case; there is also the question of how, and on what criteria, bail conditions are ac- tually set. Consider, for instance, the following two excerpts from recent court reports: In the first case – dated 2 June – "a man who stands accused of having sex with a minor, trafficking cocaine, heroin and cannabis, and being in posses- sion of a firearm and ammu- nition […] has been released on bail against a deposit of €10,000 and a personal guaran- tee of €10,000. He was ordered to sign a bail book daily and ob- serve a curfew." The second report was pub- lished at the time of writing [Friday], and concerns Serge Morel-Jean, a 73-year-old re- tired travel agent from France, who was charged this week with 'causing wilful damage to government property' by spray-painting red arrows all over Majjistral Park. On this occasion, bail was likewise granted "against a de- posit of €10,000 and a personal guarantee of €10,000. Howev- er, Morel-Jean said it was im- possible for him to come up with the sum at this time, so he was remanded in custody". And this, I suppose, is as good as any other example of a bail decision that is 'downright bizarre'. For starters: not to minimise the charges against Serge Morel-Jean, or anything – for I was just as unimpressed an everyone else by the sheer ugliness of his handiwork – but… a deposit of €10,000? For spray-painting a bunch of red arrows on a few stones? I mean, come on. A wee bit over the top, wouldn't you say? Besides, I would be curious to know how a man charged with causing damage 'in excess of €2,500' would end up a facing the exact same bail conditions as someone else accused of such evidently more serious crimes as drug-trafficking, firearm pos- session, and statutory rape. Not only that; but the price of provisional liberty set for Serge Morel-Jean was actually double the amount set for Vince Mus- cat in 2010… not to mention 10 times more than for Jona- than Pace in 2014… despite the fact that both Muscat and Pace were on trial for much, MUCH more serious crimes than mere vandalism. Just like the crimes them- selves, discrepancies such as these also undermine pub- lic faith in the justice system. And the same two cases I cited above – though not compa- rable in any other way – also seem to illustrate exactly why, too. For let's face it: who is likeli- er to be able to afford a court deposit of €10,000 in the first place? A career criminal, who is perfectly capable of theft, vio- lence and possibly murder? Or a 73-year old retired travel agent, whose crime is actually just a minor misdemeanour… and who, in any case, very clearly poses no real threat whatsoever to anyone's life and safety? Effectively, then, the court's decision to set bail so high in both cases – which is already questionable in itself, given the sheer discrepancy in offences – can be seen to pose a threat of its own: for what has it achieved in practice… if not the fact that the more potentially dangerous of the two suspects was grant- ed provisional liberty, while the manifestly less threatening one ended up behind bars? I hate to say it, but from this perspective, the entire bail sys- tem itself seems geared towards benefiting the more dangerous, violent type of criminal, at the expense of public safety. And something tells me it will take more than just a typical Joe Mifsud 'Jerry Springer mo- ment' to undo the damage… something like, for instance, a thorough (and long over- due) reform of the entire legal system governing bail in this country, from top to bottom. Faced with a seemingly endless series of bail decisions that are, at best, questionable – and at worst, downright bizarre – people are perfectly justified in feeling that the Maltese criminal justice system has, on the whole, let them down rather badly