People Are Failing To Sign Bail Books And Breaching Curfews As Maltese Inspectors Turn A Blind Eye
During the often long, stretched-out court arraignments amid countless deferred sittings, until a final judgement is given and a sentence is carried out, bail conditions can be imposed on the offender.
These conditions often result in the individual signing a bail book within a major district station closest to the residence address on his/her identity document.
This can either be ordered as daily, once a week or on any given date or period deemed appropriate by the magistrate or judge in regards to the pertaining case.
Also, the regarding judge may feel the need to order more conditions, such as imposing a curfew period to which the offender will have to remain in his residence address till the stipulated time when he can go out.
Typically, a pattern gets developed where for the first few months the individual abides by said conditions as not to raise any suspicions.
But then after a certain amount of time, the offender will ultimately fail to call at the station and sign.
Every time an individual fails to sign, they are meant to be arrested and taken to court.
Aside from this, officers must carry out inspections to see that the curfew times are being followed.
Within each major district station a night report is to be conducted and sent internally to relevant channels, by Police Telephone Orderlies stating who failed to sign apart from other duties and commitments to be left as handover for the morning officers in charge.
However, in a number of stations across Malta, officers are turning a blind eye to these infractions, with a cursory glance at station’s bail books revealing patterns ignoring conditions.
Lovin Malta spoke to legal experts on this matter, who said that such breaches are not to be taken lightly as these conditions are set on the offender to avoid other irregularities from ensuing.
However, as important as following bail conditions are, officers are not incentivised to follow up on them, only risking a verbal warning if found to be ignoring individual’s not abiding by the rules.
We often criticise courts for the length they take on some cases, and rightly so. But more attention needs to be given to the process where potential criminals are allowed back on our streets under clear conditions… only for that to be ignored by one and all.
Have you ever encountered this in Malta?