Filenews 1 May 2023
Agreement was reached by the Ministry of Justice, the Legal Service and the Department of Prisons regarding the bill that extends the detention of undertrials with electronic surveillance, the well-known electronic wristband, at home instead of in prisons.
At a meeting held recently, a joint decision was taken to send the relevant bill back to Parliament, so that the alternative decision of detention in the home of the undertrial can be implemented, instead of in prisons as is currently the case. On the issue there were disagreements both inside Parliament and outside, since the Ministry of Justice wanted the law to be passed by Parliament to have exceptions, unlike prisons and lawyers who were in favour of a universal validity of the legislation.
As explained during the meeting, it will be left to the discretion of the Court as it is today, where, after hearing both sides, it will decide whether a defendant will remain under electronic confinement at home or work and return home, or whether he will remain in custody in prison, until his trial.
As explained by the Legal Service, not all defendants will be with a wristband at home, but there will also be cases where the Court, when convinced, will order them to remain in detention until their trial. As we have been told, a defendant on trial for premeditated murder cannot be confined to his home, or a drug dealer or a paedophile. All this will be examined by the Court which will decide who will be dismissed under electronic surveillance and who will not.
The measure of applying an electronic bracelet was deemed necessary both for the decongestion of prisons, but also because it was observed that persons are held for almost two years in prisons without trial. Also, statistics showed that a large percentage of people held as undertrials in prisons, which reached almost 40%, were acquitted, thus depriving them of their liberty for a long time.
One of the questions raised at the meeting concerned what supervision prisons or police will exercise over people sent home with an electronic wristband. As stressed, they should be checked that they comply with the restrictive conditions and upon their first violation, they will be returned to prison. There are currently 17 convicts under electronic supervision, and this measure has not been extended to those on trial.
It is now expected that after the unanimous conclusion of the three services, the relevant bill will be sent back to Parliament for discussion and voting.
