The publisher of a satirical news site facing contempt of court proceedings has stood by a controversial social media post labelling Yorgen Fenech’s legal team “mafia lawyers”.
Tongue-in-cheek ‘news’ site
Bis-Serjetà is expected to face contempt of court proceedings after Fenech’s lawyers complained to magistrate Rachel Montebello about a meme uploaded on Facebook referring to them as “Mafia lawyers”.
The publisher of the site, who preferred to remain anonymous, told
Times of Malta that the attribution of the term mafia to the case was widespread.
“On
Bis-Serjetà I only satirise what is already in the public consciousness. If the courts had to go after everyone who has used the word ‘mafia’ in the context of what’s been revealed over the past year, then they’re going to have to expand Kordin [Correctional Facility] considerably,” he said.
The new law proposed by the government to regulate the legal profession is “unacceptable” as it is a far cry from what had been discussed with lawyers prior to its publication.
The Bill to amend the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure and the Commission for the Administration of Justice Act include provisions aimed at regulating the profession but come nowhere close to it, Chamber of Advocates president Louis DeGabriele told
Times of Malta.
“We think the Bill as proposed by the justice minister does not effectively address regulating the profession. Half-baked? Well, I think it’s less than half-baked.
At first glance, the law of procedure may seem unnecessarily restrictive, something to be conveniently used and carefully exploited by those who otherwise cannot get a favourable judgment. The idea among many is that the law of procedure is a tool that alienates from real justice.
The truth cannot be farther than that; the law of procedure has the purpose of establishing uniform rules to be respected and strictly implemented in order to determine by law the substantive issues before the courts of justice. It regulates how a court case is to be conducted against any unfair advantage of one party over the other, so as to ascertain that both sides of the case can properly present their arguments.