Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/710370
3 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 3 AUGUST 2016 News 'Difficult to prove' intent behind desecration of Quran copies, Azzopardi insists Shadow justice minister believes that police will have a hard time to prove desecration of Quran copies was motivated by hatred and intended to incite hatred PAUL COCKS SHADOW justice minister Jason Azzopardi called a briefing with journalists to insist that the gov- ernment's decision to remove the vilification of religion from Maltese laws will make it harder for police to prosecute. Following the desecration of Quran copies at Mater Dei Hospi- tal's prayer room, Azzopardi said this was a clear case of religious vili- fication. Slices of bacon were found in- side several copies of the Quran, alongside a printed A4 pa- per with the wording: "RIP Fr Jacques Hamel, victim of Islam and its liberal/progressive apolo- gists. A religion with blood on its hand cannot complain that its books are soiled." According to Azzopardi, who is also a criminal lawyer, Article 82A will not help the police in prosecut- ing the perpetrator as it would be very difficult to prove a specific in- tent to incite religious hatred. "This case is a perfect example of why the opposition had voted against removing religious vilifica- tion from the criminal code, but it would not be the only one," Azzo- pardi warned. He explained the difference in le- gal terms between vilification and inciting religious hatred. "Vilification was a crime of ge- neric intent, relatively easy to prove, whereas in the case of incitement to racial hatred – a crime of specific intent – it would be extremely dif- ficult for the prosecution to prove the intent to incite racial hatred," he explained. Azzopardi went on to say that if he were to take a crucifix and dunk it in urine and faeces, he could have been prosecuted under the religious vilification law, but not under Arti- cle 82A. "The same thing if I were to take a copy of the Quran, and rip it to shreds in Republic Street, declaring it to be toilet paper," he said. "And as a defence lawyer, I can say that it would be very difficult for the prosecution to prove someone was guilty of inciting religious hatred based only on one incident, without there being a series of prior actions to support their claim," he said. Azzopardi, a vocal critic of the government's decision to remove religious vilification from the law, had suggested in parliament that the government retain the legisla- tion, but with a caveat allowing for artistic and cultural freedom. He had also recommended, as an alternative, adding the con- cept of equal protection for all re- ligions, including atheism, within the legislation on religious vilifica- tion. He blamed the government of toy- ing with the country's security. An EU expert has told MaltaTo- day that the intentional damage to copies of the Quran at Mater Dei Hospital could be penalised as a racist hate crime under the Maltese Criminal Code provision on wilful damage to public property (Arti- cle 325) coupled with the apparent racist motivation which courts are obliged to take into account (Article 83B of the Maltese Criminal Code). Physical desecration of religious objects is a crime CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 "All serious data collection on hate crime takes desecration of re- ligious buildings and objects into account," the expert said, clarif ying that these criminal offences must be clearly dis- tinguished from the altogether different cases of religious sat- ire or blasphemy, which are very rarely prosecuted across Europe due to the overarching guarantees relating to freedom of expression. "It is thus perfectly possible for a state to punish the physi- cal desecration of religious buildings or objects while si- multaneously permitting reli- gious satire," the expert said. Muslims who pray at Mater Dei's multi-faith room were shocked to find slices of pork (bacon) placed among the pages of several Quran books. A printed A4 paper was also found, bearing a picture of Fr Jacques Hamel who was mur- dered in Saint-Etienne-du-Rou- vray, near Rouen, France last week. The message on the paper read: "RIP Fr Jacques Hamel, victim of Islam and its liberal/ progressive apologists. A re- ligion with blood on its hand cannot complain that its books are soiled." Confirming the incident, the Islamic Community in Malta condemned the criminal act and reported the incident to the hospital's CEO and the police. "We as Muslims living in Malta will not play their game. We could say, like all the hat- ers and fools, that this was an act of Christian terrorism but we don't generalize like those perpetrators who have the same agenda as other terror- ist groups, encouraging hate in this beautiful country," the ICM said on its Facebook page. Jason Azzopardi OLAF director Giovanni Kessler loses interim challenge on immunity in Dalligate investigation MAT THEW VELLA THE EU's top anti-fraud official has lost a legal challenge to a Eu- ropean Commission decision to temporarily suspend the lifting of his immunity from prosecu- tion, in connection with a Bel- gian police investigation. His challenge to the Commis- sion's decision to lift his immu- nity is still ongoing in the Euro- pean Court of Justice. Giovanni Kessler, director- general of the EU anti-fraud of- fice OLAF filed a complaint in March with the General Court of the European Union saying the Commission's removal of his protection from prosecu- tion was a threat to the agency's independence, which is guaran- teed in EU law. The decision by the Commis- sion in March, after a year of wavering, was the first time im- munity had ever been lifted for an OLAF official. But the General Court of the ECJ has refused his appeal, say- ing that the Belgian police will be dealing with the accusation that Kessler listened in on a tele- phone conversation without per- mission on 3 July, 2012 during OLAF's probe of the Dalligate lobbying scandal, in violation of Belgian law. This, it said, would not affect OLAF's independence. In a comment on the decision, OLAF said that the Court's de- cision only refers to a request made by the OLAF Director- General for interim measures to be applied by the Court, as a matter of urgency, until the Court reaches a final verdict on the substance of the case he has filed. "The Director-General had re- quested that through such inter- im measures, the Court tempo- rarily and urgently suspends the application of the Commission decision lifting his immunity for an investigative act carried out in the course of his professional duties. On 20 July, the Court re- jected only this application for interim measures, not the entire case. The Court found that there was no urgency at stake at this moment in time. It did not rule on the validity of the arguments in law put forward by the Direc- tor-General. The case on sub- stance is therefore on-going and will proceed as per the Court's usual rules and timelines." The Belgian investigation fo- cuses on allegations Kessler listened in to a conversation by witness Inge Delfosse – the sec- retary-general of the European Smokeless Tobacco Council – as she contacted Silvio Zammit from a speaker-phone. Zammit is accused of solicit- ing a bribe and of trading of inf luence in a Maltese court, by having requested a multimil- lion bribe from snus producers Swedish Match, to inf luence then health commissioner John Dalli to lift an EU retail ban on the chewing tobacco. The evidence gathered from the Delfosse call was not used in OLAF's final Dalligate report. If proven that Kessler did listen in, he could face a prison sentence of up to two years and a fine un- der Belgian law. Giovanni Kessler lost a legal challenge to a European Commission decision to lift his immunity from prosecution