The law is only in Maltese at this stage and hasn’t been translated yet. The core reform of Labour’s proposed money-laundering bill can be read in Article 18 and its succeeding one. You can download it here.
As you can read, the law changes the burden of proof from the suspect to the prosecutor. It also greatly limits what the prosecutor can do, and limits them to ask for a freeze only of the assets that can be proved to have been money laundered. The law is a joke for reasons already described and it gives unprecedented power to money laundering suspects to keep operating and moving their assets even when suspected of money laundering and are undergoing proceedings in court. The Minister of Justice is also lying about the constitutional court having condemned the law since the constitutional court only condemned the unnecessary delays.
The law greatly diminishes the power of the Attorney General who has so far remained completely silent on the reform. It is customary for the Attorney General to provide her opinion to the government on the laws it proposes, and the Attorney General can also make this public. In this regard, where specifically the power of the prosecutor is going to be greatly diminished, it is the responsibility of the Attorney General to speak up and defend its role.
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