Background
The aim of this Reform is to continue the process of justice reform particularly in the field of criminal committal (also referred to as ‘compilation’ or ‘inquiry’) proceedings. The proposed Bill which is being launched for public consultation, introduces an accelerated disclosure and committal process before the Court of Magistrates as a court of criminal inquiry particularly with a view to moving from full oral committal proceedings, in which every witness has to give evidence in court viva voce, to shorter committal proceedings based to a larger extent on the examination of pre-documented evidence. Thereby the length of committal proceedings and of criminal proceedings in general should be reduced and the necessity for witnesses to be present in court on several occasions shall as much as possible be avoided. The Bill also proposes an amendment which shall do away with the absolute necessity of having committal proceedings in cases where the charges could lead to a punishment of between six (6) and twelve (12) years imprisonment. The proposed amendments also provide for a mandatory reduction in punishment in case of guilty pleas and the Bill also proposes consequential amendments to the Constitution and to the European Convention Act (Cap. 319).
The Consultation Document is available through the following link:
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