Malta: Femicide law to be tested in constitutional challenge claiming it is discriminatory

Article here. Excerpt:

'Lawyers representing the first man to be accused of the new offence of femicide, after shooting his wife dead last year, are questioning its constitutionality.

This emerges from an application to the First Hall of the Civil Court in its constitutional jurisdiction, which was filed this morning on behalf of Roderick Cassar.

Cassar, 42, from Qrendi is currently the subject of criminal proceedings, in which he is accused of fatally shooting his wife, Bernice Cassar, from close range at the Corradino industrial estate in Paola, not far from her workplace.
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"Why is the murder of a woman, committed under one of the circumstances mentioned in Article 211A [rendering it wilful femicide], is taken to be worse than the murder of a man carried out in identical circumstances.” The same was argued about the harsher punishment.'