Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1398274
12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 AUGUST 2021 NEWS Depenalisation reveals criminal offences you did not know existed The depenalisation of 40 crimes has lifted the lid on some of the less serious offences in the Criminal Code that will now be adjudged by Judicial Commissioners rather than magistrates. Kurt Sansone reports. KURT SANSONE HAVE you ever walked past a fortification and cut grass from its environs for whatever rea- son? If you did, you probably were unaware it is a crime. And if you were booked for it, you'd have to appear in front of a magistrate, who will probably be dealing with a murder case just after your sitting. Cutting grass in or about any fortification without permission is one of the lesser offences in the Criminal Code, which have now been depenalised and will be considered as an administra- tive offence. Throwing build- ing material and rubbish in any ditch or near a fortification is another offence that has been depenalised. Law Commissioner Antonio Mizzi has identified 40 minor offences at law that will now be determined by judicial commis- sioners rather than magistrates. The offences will still remain il- legal but will be treated just like parking on a double yellow line and the cases determined by lo- cal tribunals. But Mizzi's exercise has lift- ed the lid on some of the lesser known offences that would sur- prise many. Allowing any "insane person" under your custody "to go about at large" is an offence as is open- ing and keeping "any place for public divine worship" without a license. Any person who "pretends to be a diviner, fortune-teller or an interpreter of dreams" and takes advantage of the "credulity of others, for the purpose of gain", is illegal. You probably know that row- diness or bawling that disturbs the repose of people at night time is illegal but you'd be sur- prised to learn that if you leave a ladder exposed in the street or an open space could land you in trouble. Well, the law would consider the latter act as aiding thieves or wrong-doers to make improper use of the object. But the list does not end here. Wearing a mask or disguise in any public place, quarrelling or fighting even in jest in the street to the annoyance or injury of passers-by and being naked or indecently dressed on the seashore or a public place, are all offences that will now be judged by local tribunals. And in what is a remnant of times past by when animal transport was rife, it is illegal to drive animals "over a draw- bridge" otherwise than at an amble. Calling a doctor, surgeon, ob- stetrician, or priest, to attend to a person who has been falsely represented to be sick, is also a crime. Leading "an idle and vagrant life" and begging in public plac- es goes against the law as is run- ning violently in a street or open space with the risk of injuring other people or running into them. And teenagers better be ad- vised that anybody over 15 years of age who uses playing equip- ment in a children's playground is breaking the law and can end up in front of the justice com- missioner. Have you ever walked past a fortification and cut grass from its environs for whatever reason? If you did, you probably were unaware it is a crime. Law Commissioner Antonio Mizzi