€3,000 fine revoked after court states wardens should not enforce COVID quarantine laws

Jan 22 2022

A woman has had a €3,000 fine revoked by a court, which stated that Local Enforcement System Agency (LESA) officers have no legal power to enforce Malta’s COVID-19 quarantine regulations.

Pavla Stejskalova was accused of breaching quarantine regulations in November 2020, eventually being found guilty and fined €3,000. After presenting the necessary documents and observing all quarantine requirements, Stejskalova’s appeal was noted, with the court itself raising the issue of null proceedings due to LESA officers not having the power to enforce said regulations.

Magistrate Victor Axiak highlighted that, based on Article 3 of Subsidiary Legislation 595.14, the agency’s remit is to “provide for the enforcement of any law, regulation or bye-law, the enforcement of which has been delegated to regional committees, local councils or to such other local or regional authorities as are designated by the Local Government Act …’ “

The court eventually ruled that “no regional committee (or agency for local enforcement) has any power to enforce or bring forward proceedings against any person accused of breaching the Enforcement of Directions relating to Quarantine Regulations”.

What do you make of this?

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Jenise Spiteri becomes first ever Maltese snowboarder to compete at the Winter Olympics

Jan 22 2022

California based snowboarder, Jenise Spiteri will be representing Malta in the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing. She will write history as the first ever Maltese person to compete in snowboarding at the Winter Olympics. She announced this exciting news on all of her social media accounts.

Her ties to Malta come from her grandparents, who emigrated from Hamrun all the way to San Francisco after they lost their homes due to the constant bombings in World War 2. Her grandfather was actually the person that got her into snow sports after creating an ice skating boot company SP-Teri

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A post shared by Jenise Spiteri (@jenisespiteri)

In her post she had this to say; “It still doesn’t feel real- and I don’t think it will until I arrive in Beijing. But HOLY MOLY I’M GOING TO BEIJING! Qualifying for the Olympics has been such a crazy battle, with way more unexpected struggles than I imagined facing when I first began, but I’m so proud of myself for sticking to my goal and never quitting. I’ve finally earned my chance to represent Malta as their first ever Olympic snowboarder.”

“The past 8 years of putting everything I had into this dream has been far from easy, but along the way I got to travel the world, make amazing memories, and meet great friends. I’m going to be giving it my all here in Switzerland for my last 11 days of training before the Games to try and accomplish my goals so I can put down a dream run for everyone to watch in Beijing.”

“And of course I couldn’t have done it without your help along the way. Big thank you everyone who’s given me a couch to sleep on, a donation to my gofundme, a ride to the mountain, or a hot meal over this journey.”

She will compete in the Halfpipe contest. The first round of qualifiers will be held on the 9th of February whilst the final will be the next day on the 10th of February. She will also be carrying the Maltese flag at the opening ceremony on the 4th of February.

We wish Jenise the best of luck!

#MaltaDaily

A new Omicron COVID variant is currently under investigation

Jan 22 2022

The UK Health Security Agency is investigating a new COVID-19 variant, reportedly a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant titled ‘BA.2′.

Cases are believed to be very low, with 53 sequences found in the UK until January 10. Half of the cases in Denmark are BA.2 with primary studies revealing that so far, it has not caused any changes in the number of hospitalisations compared to the previous Omicron variant. Further data collection and analysis is required to extract more conclusive reports but UKHSA incident director Dr Meera Chand has stated that this new variant was expected due to viruses’ nature to evolve and mutate.

Statens Serum Institut (SSI) researcher told Danish station TV 2 that the variant may be “more resistant to the immunity in the population, which allows it to infect more,” albeit going on to state that “[they] do not know yet.”

In light of the emergence of this variant, some are concerned that the BA.2 may be more transmissible than BA.1 as researchers await further results to confirm these concerns.

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Malta’s court documents will go digital within one year, Justice Minister reveals

Jan 22 2022

All of Malta’s court documents will be shifted to digital media within a year, Minister for Justice Edward Zammit Lewis has revealed.

The Minister stated how this process boasts various advantages, amongst them less papers use and a decrease in bureaucracy. This process is part of the Digital Strategy for Malta’s Courts, which is being conducted with the European Commission and European Council. Chief executive of Court Services Agency Eunice Grech Fiorini stated that the court will benefit from an increase in security thanks to this system.

Court register Franklin Calleja went on to explain how this process is expected to take around a year, with 5 scanners being utilised to scan the documents.

#MaltaDaily