Go directly to jail... harsh penalty for minor bribery

Malta is unique among 39 members of the Council or Europe in imposing imprisonment as the only punishment for bribery, a report by the Group of State Against Corruption (GRECO) reveals.

"Malta is very unusual in that the only penalty available for bribery is imprisonment; fines cannot be levied, even if the offence is minor," the report, published last week, said.

The report is a thematic review of GRECO's evaluation of country's reports on incriminations.

The report reveals that the law of nearly all states provides measures other than imprisonment that can be applied upon conviction of a bribery offence and which "can be very effective in reflecting the nature of the mischief in cases of bribery".

The most common of these is a fine. But the report expresses concern that in some jurisdictions over the level of fines that are somewhat low.

Although Malta is unique in having a law which only foresees imprisonment for bribery allegations, according to a reply to a parliamentary question issued in February, only 20 people have been imprisoned for bribery or corruption charges in the past two decades. Two of the corruption charges which led to imprisonment were linked to fixing of football games while two other cases involved the corruption of witnesses.

Since 1992 only 24 have been imprisoned for money laundering and just nine have been imprisoned for usury.

This emerges from statistics showing the number of persons classified according to the offence committed who were imprisoned every year since 1992.

Previous reports on Malta had noted a discrepancy between penalties for bribery and penalties for trading in influence.

A report published in January revealed that a draft law is set to raise the maximum penalty for trading in influence from 18 months to three years but according to GRECO the proposed sanctions against trading in influence is still not in line  with other comparable offences under Maltese law, such as bribery in the public or in the private sector, which may lead to a maximum sanction of eight years.

A ministry spokesperson confirmed that it  has noted GRECO's recommendations and will be addressing the matter through an amendment to amend the relevant provision in the Criminal Code.