131 requests for removal of online court judgements since 2013

A total of 131 requests have been made, to date, for the removal of online judgements from the website of the law courts.

From the total number, 109 such requests were made this year, while 21 were submitted in 2017, Owen Bonnici said.

Replying to a parliamentary question from Nationalist Party MP Jason Azzopardi, the Justice Minister said that, of the total number of requests, 86 led to the court judgement in question being anonymised.

This means that the personal details of the person in question are removed from the judgement on the internet.

However, 41 of the requests were denied, one was invalid, and another three are still being considered, the Bonnici said.

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Bonnici noted that any such requests only effect the online version of the sentence, with the copy of the judgement found on the internal court system - which is available to the legal profession - not being affected.