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WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post PG 9 • Editorial WEDNESDAY • 5 OCTOBER 2016 • ISSUE 489 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY facebook.com/apsbank values you can bank on 2122 6644 apsbank.com.mt APS Bank Limited is licensed to undertake the business of Banking and to conduct Investment Services business by the Malta Financial Services Authority and is enrolled in the Tied Insurance Intermediaries List under the Insurance Intermediaries Act 2006. The Bank is a participant in the Depositor Compensation Scheme established under Legal Notice 383 of 2015. MAKING LIFE SIMPLE FOR YOU HOME FINANCING SOLUTIONS We make your home loan selection simple by providing clear terms for all of our products. Contact us today to find out more. We think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Home Loans Press Advert Artwork.indd 7 04/10/2016 1:56 PM Ta' Giorni murder: Man charged with killing his partner MATTHEW AGIUS A man accused of murdering Caro- line Magri yesterday pleaded not guilty to charges of wilful homicide. A court remanded the 33-year-old Togolese national Djibril Ganiou in custody after he was arraigned on a murder charge. In an after-hours arraignment be- fore Magistrate Gabriella Vella late yesterday afternoon, Inspector Keith Arnaud charged Ganiou with the horrific murder of his Maltese part- ner Caroline Magri. Arnaud said the accused was ar- rested shortly after the murder last Friday, being the prime suspect, but police investigations had to be sus- pended temporarily to allow him to be treated in Mount Carmel hospi- tal. Ganiou was back into police cus- tody at around 11:30am Tuesday morning, for further questioning. The accused, a tile-layer, stood with arms crossed in the dock, nerv- ously tapping his feet as he pleaded not guilty to the charges. No request for bail was made. The body of Magri, 41, a mother of eight, was found on Friday in an apartment in Ta' Giorni. An autopsy confirmed that she had died as a re- sult of multiple stab wounds to the neck and chest. The murder scene was described by police as being a macabre one. Eyewitnesses told MaltaToday on Friday that the woman's anguished daughter was seen emerging from the house, after the assailant left the building. Djibril Ganiou (centre) arriving at the law courts escorted by the police yesterday afternoon PAGE 8 Emergency contraceptive pill is not abortifacient Malta Medical Journal is unequivocal: MIRIAM DALLI EXISTING medical knowledge has never demonstrated that the morning after pill prevents the implantation of a fertilised ovum, which means that in no way can the emergency con- traceptive pill be considered as abortifacient. The unequivocal statement was made in the editorial of the journal of the University of Malta Medical School, written by Professor Victor Grech. "The scientific truth of the matter is that extant medical knowledge, up to the time of writing, has never demonstrat- ed that levonorgestrel [LNG] emergency contraception [ECP] prevents the implantation of a fertilised ovum. ECP therefore cannot, in any way, be consid- ered abortifacient," the edito- rial reads. A debate on whether medi- cines suppliers should be al- lowed to import emergency contraceptives Levonelle 1500mcg tablet and ellaOne has been raging on ever since the Women's Rights Foundation filed a judicial protest calling on the authorities to allow their importation. Access to the emergency con- traception pills is set to be dis- cussed for one last time this evening during a join parlia- mentary committee meeting. In his editorial, the profes- sor, who argues that the whole debate was a storm in a tea- cup, explains that the primary mechanism of the morning af- ter pill is to prevent fertilisation by impeding ovulation. "The most recent scientific evidence shows that LNG ECP delays ovulation and does not prevent implantation nor does ECP cause the loss implanted embryos." To push his argument further, Grech - a consultant paediatri- cian with a special interest in paediatric cardiology - points out that even Catholic bishops in Germany have acknowledged that ECP does not prevent im- plantation – even though the Church only approves its use for rape. The professor goes on to call out the hypocrisy of those who came out against the morning after pill, arguing that most have ignored the existence of "local equivalents that can and are being used as emergency contraception and that ECP can be delivered by fast courier to our doors." The Malta Medical Journal editorial dismissed the issue as a 'storm in a teacup' as parliamentary committees meet today for final discussion PAGE 6 PHOTOGRAPHY BY: CHRIS MANGION