Femicide to be distinct criminal offence as Cabinet overrules justice minister

Femicide is to become a distinct criminal offence, the Prime Minister has announced after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

No details have been given but Cabinet’s decision overrules Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis’s previous stand against such a proposal floated by women’s rights groups.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday afternoon, Robert Abela said Cabinet has approved legal changes to “strengthen the fight against gender-based violence and introduce the concept of femicide in the Criminal Code”.

Abela said the decision came on the back of talks government had with civil society groups after the brutal murder of Paulina Dembska last month.

Women’s rights groups said Dembska’s murder was femicide and called for the crime to be given specific recognition at law.

The Justice Minister had said there was no need for a specific provision for femicide in the Criminal Code since murder already carried the highest punishment - life imprisonment.

However, women’s rights activists argued that making femicide a distinct crime would constitute a cultural shift in how crimes against women are viewed.

The Opposition was also in favour of making femicide a distinct offence.

Abela said more details would be given in the coming days. “We look forward for the parliamentary process to start as quickly as possible,” the Prime Minister said.

Dembska’s murder shocked the nation after her lifeless body was found lying in a public garden in Sliema. She was raped several times and strangled.

Abner Aquilina, 20, has been charged with rape and murder. The compilation of evidence is ongoing and in the first sitting, a police inspector testified how Aquilina raped Dembska orally, vaginally and anally.

But the police caused a stir when in a press conference prior to Aquilina’s arraignment said the murder was not linked to the victim’s gender.

Women’s rights groups pounced on the statement, saying it showed the lack of sensitivity towards gender-based violence.

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