39. (1) Whenever any person is charged with a criminal offence he shall, unless the charge is withdrawn, be afforded a fair hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial court established by law.
(2) Any court or other adjudicating authority prescribed by law for the determination of the existence or the extent of civil rights or obligations shall be independent and impartial; and where proceedings for such a determination are instituted by any person before such a court or other adjudicating authority, the case shall be given a fair hearing within a reasonable time.
(3) Except with the agreement of all the parties thereto, all proceedings of every court and proceedings relating to the determination of the existence or the extent of a person’s civil rights or obligations before any other adjudicating authority, including the announcement of the decision of the court or other authority, shall be held in public.
(4) Nothing in sub-article (3) of this article shall prevent any court or any authority such as is mentioned in that sub-article from excluding from the proceedings persons other than the parties thereto and their legal representatives -
(a) in proceedings before a court of voluntary jurisdiction and other proceedings which, in the practice of the Courts in Malta are, or are of the same nature as those which are, disposed of in chambers;
(b) in proceedings under any law relating to income tax; or

(c) to such extent as the court or other authority -
(i) may consider necessary or expedient in circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice; or
(ii) may be empowered or required by law to do so in the interests of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or decency, the welfare of persons under the age of eighteen years or the protection of the private lives of persons concerned in the proceedings.
(5) Every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved or has pleaded guilty:
Provided that nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of this sub-article to the extent that the law in question imposes upon any person charged as aforesaid the burden of proving particular facts.
(6) Every person who is charged with a criminal offence -
(a) shall be informed in writing, in a language which he understands and in detail, of the nature of the offence charged;
(b) shall be given adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence;
(c) shall be permitted to defend himself in person or by a legal representative and a person who cannot afford to pay for such legal representation as is reasonably required by the circumstances of his case shall be entitled to have such representation at the public expense;
(d) shall be afforded facilities to examine in person or by his legal representative the witnesses called by the prosecution before any court and to obtain the attendance of witnesses subject to the payment of their reasonable expenses, and carry out the examination of witnesses to testify on his behalf before the court on the same conditions as those applying to witnesses called by the prosecution; and
(e) shall be permitted to have without payment the assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand the language used at the trial of the charge,
and except with his own consent the trial shall not take place in his absence unless he so conducts himself as to render the continuance of the proceedings in his presence impracticable and the court has ordered him to be removed and the trial to proceed in his absence.
(7) When a person is tried for any criminal offence, the accused person or any person authorised by him in that behalf shall, if he so requires and subject to payment of such reasonable fee as may be prescribed by law, be given within a reasonable time after judgment a copy for the use of the accused person of any record of the




































Protection of freedom of conscience and worship.
Amended by: LVIII.1974.12.

proceedings made by or on behalf of the court.
(8) No person shall be held to be guilty of a criminal offence on account of any act or omission that did not, at the time it took place, constitute such an offence, and no penalty shall be imposed for any criminal offence which is severer in degree or description than the maximum penalty which might have been imposed for that offence at the time when it was committed.
(9) No person who shows that he has been tried by any competent court for a criminal offence and either convicted or acquitted shall again be tried for that offence or for any other criminal offence of which he could have been convicted at the trial for that offence save upon the order of a superior court made in the course of appeal or review proceedings relating to the conviction or acquittal; and no person shall be tried for a criminal offence if he shows that he has been pardoned for that offence:
Provided that nothing in any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of this sub-article by reason only that it authorises any court to try a member of a disciplined force for a criminal offence notwithstanding any trial and conviction or acquittal of that member under the disciplinary law of that force, so however that any court so trying such a member and convicting him shall in sentencing him to any punishment take into account any punishment awarded him under that disciplinary law.
(10) No person who is tried for a criminal offence shall be compelled to give evidence at his trial.
(11) In this article "legal representative" means a person entitled to practise in Malta as an advocate or, except in relation to proceedings before a court where a legal procurator has no right of audience, a legal procurator.

395. The depositions of the witnesses and the examination of the accused shall be signed by the magistrate.

405. (3) The witnesses shall be examined or re-examined in the presence of the accused in order that he may have the opportunity of cross-examining them, and, for such purpose, the court shall order the accused, if in custody, to be brought up, and, if not in custody, to be summoned to appear before it.

(1) In any proceedings instituted by the Attorney General or by the Executive Police on the complaint of the injured party, it shall be lawful for the complainant to be present at the proceedings, to engage an advocate or a legal procurator to assist him, to examine or cross-examine witnesses and to produce, in support of the charge, such other evidence as the court may consider admissible.

(2) Where the complainant is to be heard on oath, his evidence shall be taken before that of any other witness of the prosecution, saving the case where, in the opinion of the court, his evidence becomes necessary even at a later stage of the proceedings, or where the accused applies for such evidence at any stage of the proceedings, or where the court sees fit to vary the course of the taking of the evidence.

(3) In any proceedings instituted by the Executive Police ex officio, it shall be lawful for the Police and for the party injured to engage an advocate or a legal procurator to assist them; such advocate or legal procurator may examine or cross-examine witnesses, produce evidence or make, in support of the charge, any other submission which the court may consider admissible.

(4) Without prejudice to the provisions of sub-article (3) and subject to the provisions of sub-article (6), any party injured having an interest in being present during any proceedings instituted by the Executive Police shall have the right to communicate that interest to the police giving his or her particulars and residential address whereupon that injured party shall be served with a notice of the date, place and time of the first hearing in those proceedings and shall have the right to be present in court during that and all subsequent hearings even if he is a witness.

(5) Without prejudice to the provisions of sub-article (3) and subject to the provisions of sub-article (6), any person not served with the notice referred to in sub-article (4) and claiming to be an injured party may apply to the court to be admitted into the proceedings as an injured party and if his claim that he is an injured party is allowed by the court that person shall thereupon have the right to be present at all subsequent hearings even if he is a witness.

(6) The failure to serve the injured party with the notice of the date of the first hearing after an attempt has been made to that effect or the absence for any reason of the injured party at any sitting shall not preclude the court from proceeding with the trial or inquiry until its conclusion.

458. (1) When the case for the prosecution is concluded, the accused shall be asked what he has to state in his defence. He shall have the right to make his defence, either personally or by an advocate, and to call and examine his witnesses in the manner provided in the last preceding article, and to produce any other evidence he may have to offer.

459. The order to be followed in the examination of witnesses shall be as hereunder:

The party calling the witness proceeds to examine him; then the opposite party may, if he so desires, cross-examine him; any juror may then put any question which he may deem necessary; and the court, besides the questions which it may deem proper to put in the course of the examination or cross-examination, may finally put any other question which it shall deem necessary.