Speaking outside parliament, Grima said Lassana Cisse Souleymane, a 42-year-old father, was “killed in cold blood” in Ħal Far while “minding his own business,” according to Newsbook. The prosecution has considered the attack racially motivated.
He also pushed back against criticism of the prosecution service within the Attorney General’s Office, saying it was unfair to attack it because criminal cases go through a full legal process and because the office had secured convictions leading to effective prison sentences in other cases. “Yes, I have faith in the Attorney General’s Office,” he said. “I have faith in her [Victoria Buttigieg] too.”
That is a careful political line, and a revealing one. Grima did not pretend the case was anything but ugly. He said he does not feel this is the Malta he wants to live in, and insisted the people who carried out the killing did not reflect the values of Maltese and Gozitan society. But he also refused to turn anger at the outcome into an argument that the jury system itself had failed.
Times of Malta reported that Grima said the jury system must remain in place, even as he said he would be open to discussion about changes such as requiring jurors to justify their decisions or considering a mixed system of jurors and judges. That is not the language of a minister preparing immediate reform. It is the language of someone trying to steady the ground.
He also stressed, as Newsbook reported, that not everyone brought before a jury is necessarily guilty. That is a basic point of criminal justice, but in a case that has drawn such obvious revulsion, it is also the part politicians are often least eager to say aloud.
For Grima, the emphasis was on separating the horror of the killing from a broader collapse of faith in the system. He said he believes juries should remain because he has faith in Maltese and Gozitan people, who he said have “the common sense and the backbone” to reach decisions in such cases.
Isla Camilleri 
Dua Mifsud 
Harvey Jr.