Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/254848
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 5 FEBRUARY 2014 News 6 Notice of meeting to be held in public e Malta Environment & Planning Authority will meet on ursday 6th February, 2014 at 14:00 hours at the MEPA boardroom, St. Francis Ravelin, Floriana, to discuss the following: DETERMINATION OF DEVELOPMENT PLANNING APPLICATION: PA 6239/08: Site at, Triq il-Kurunell Savona, Sliema Demolition of existing buildings, excavation and construction of a residential complex, e Meeting will be held at MEPA boardroom, St. Francis Ravelin, Floriana. Subject to the maximum seating capacity, seats can be reserved on request for the applicant and registered obje tors. Remaining seating is lled on a rst come rst served basis. RESERVATIONS: 2290 2018 30 th January, 2014 www.mepa.org.mt Murdered taxi driver's relatives request victim's remains for burial CHRIS MANGION THE family of murdered taxi driver Matthew Zahra, yesterday morn- ing requested the court to order the release of Zahra's remains for burial. Appearing for the family, lawyer Ste- fano Filletti signed the family's re- quest. Defence lawyers Joe Giglio and Franco Debono informed the court they had no objection for the release of Zahra's remains. Jason Galea, 39 of Birzebbugia and Richard Urry, 49 of Paola stand charged with the murder of Matthew Zahra in August 2012. Giglio and Debono are defence counsel for Galea and Urry respectively. In July 2013, police unearthed Za- hra's remains while investigating the killing of Mario Camilleri 'l-Imnie- hru' and his son Mario Jnr. The bod- ies of the three victims were found buried in a field at Qajjenza, Birzeb- bugia. In today's sitting, once again Giglio called on the court to grant bail to Ja- son Galea. "While noting the seriousness of the offence, there is no justified reason why Galea remains under preventive arrest. Until the day of judgment, the accused is still presumed innocent. Furthermore, he has strong family ties which keep him from abscond- ing," the lawyer said. But prosecuting officer, Fabian Fleuri, argued that Galea's strong family ties did not keep him from kill- ing his own family members. The defence held that as both the prosecution and the court know that there were specific circumstances which led to the murders Galea is charged with. Lawyer Franco Debono requested that the accused, Richard Urry, be al- lowed to visit his mother, who is sick. Magistrate Edwina Grima upheld the request and allowed Urry to visit his mother Evelyn on Thursday. Urry is to be under police escort for the dura- tion of the visit. When asked for the address of his mother's residence, Urry said she lives in Triq ix-Xemxija, Marsa. This is the same street where a man was shot dead this morning. In separate proceedings, Jason Galea stands charged with the mur- der of Mario Camilleri and his son. Commenting to MaltaToday af- ter the sitting, an emotional Mona Camilleri, wife and mother of the victims, said that it would not be rea- sonable of the court if the accused is granted bail simply because six months have passed from the start of the case. "It won't be fair that the man who killed my family is out on bail… while my husband and son remain un- buried." Matthew Zahra was reported missing on 15 August 2012 Family expert to give her views on gay adoption before parliamentary committee MIRIAM DALLI PROF. Angela Abela, the Head of the Department of Family Studies, will be asked to give her views to a parliamen- tary committee on amendments to the law allowing same-sex couples the possibility to adopt. The call was made by the Nationalist Opposition who insisted that the view of the family expert should be heeded before "rushing to take" any decisions. On Monday, the Opposition re- quested a ruling after insisting that a meeting of the parliamentary select committee on family affairs was can- celled only 24 hours before it was to be held. Abela was to appear before the committee discussing the Civil Un- ions Bill. Yesterday evening, when the parlia- mentary committee for the considera- tion of bills met to start discussing the same bill, the Opposition's representa- tives – Chris Said, Beppe Fenech Ada- mi and Claudette Buttigieg – said they wanted to hear the view of the family expert before approving any clauses related to adoptions. The Speaker ruled that Abela should carry out her presentation to the MPs. Government whip Carmelo Abela pointed out that he had invited Abela to this evening's sitting. Due to the short notice invitation, Angela Abela however said that she required more time to prepare herself. It was also pointed out during the committee that the whips had already agreed to both sides inviting whoever they saw fit to the meeting. "Both sides knew they could invite whoever they wanted to and that eve- ryone who felt should intervene would be allowed to do so. So why wasn't Abela invited?" civil liberties minister Helena Dalli asked the PN MPs. Insisting that they would not go ahead with the approval of the clauses if they didn't first hear what Abela had to say, Fenech Adami commented that it would be "useless" if her opinion was to be heard after the clauses on adop- tions were approved. At one point, Fenech Adami grilled Dalli on whether the Department of Family Studies at the University of Malta had been consulted on the matter. "We consulted with a consultative council on LGBT rights which car- ried out its research, its studies, draft the bill and presented it to us," she replied. Intervening, MGRM co-ordinator Gabi Calleja pointed out that while Angela Abela was a family expert, "however I do not know of any stud- ies carried out on children with gay parents". "I think that we cannot take her ex- pertise for granted. Nor has the fam- ily institute every carried out such a research," she said. So as not to discriminate against heterosexual couples, the Civil Un- ions Act allows both heterosexual and homosexual couples the right to a civil union. This possibility however leads to Chris Said to ask "for clarification" on whether this meant that hetero- sexual couples would now have the option to choose between marriage and civil unions while same-sex cou- ples could only choose civil unions. The question irked Dalli who replied: "Do you want to include marriage for same-sex couples as well?" During the committee meeting, the minister was very vocal in her defence of gay couples being allowed the possi- bility to adopt: "We would be discrim- inating against same-sex couples if we deny them the opportunity to appear before the board which evaluates par- ents wanting to adopt." Disagreeing, Chris Said said this was not a matter of discrimination: "It's not about a couple's right to adopt but about the children's rights." An amendment pushed by the Op- position was voted out, after the gov- ernment side argued that if a mistake were to happen, the consequences would be worse. The Opposition had proposed that the following amend- ment should be included: "the registra- tion of a civil union is essential to the validation of the said civil union and the civil effects of the same union". In other words, the civil union would only be valid after the couple registers their union, even after signing the contract. But according to Silvan Agius, pol- icy coordinator with the Ministry for Social Dialogue, this could become problematic if between the signing the contract and the registration one of the couple passes away. Legally, the living partner could lose everything and the deceased partner's will would go to the relatives. Agius, who got married to his hus- band in Belgium, explained that a public registrar was present when the two got married. But like the anomaly that existed be- fore the divorce legislation was intro- duced, the Civil Unions Bill also has its own: the status of same-sex couples married abroad will be recognised in Malta. Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Owen Bonnici said that this clause was important as Malta risked breaching EU law if it were not to recognise the marriage status obtained by couples abroad who were now living in Malta. So as not to discriminate against heterosexual couples, the Civil Unions Act allows both heterosexual and homosexual couples the right to a civil union