RAMADAN v. MALTA JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION 39 “ORDER BY THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS In terms of subarticle (1) of Article 14 of the Maltese Citizenship Act (Cap 188), it is hereby ordered that Mr Louay Ramadan Wahba Mabrouk (holder of Maltese Identity Card No. 438094M), a son of Ramadan Wahbah Mabrouk and Aziza Self El-Batanony, born in Cairo, Egypt, on the 17 June 1964 and presently residing at 14, Flat 3, Triq Barth, Hamrun, be deprived of his Maltese citizenship with immediate effect.” This order was communicated to the applicant by the following letter: “Sir With reference to your application for Maltese citizenship and your subsequent registration as a citizen of Malta on 19 April 1994, you are hereby informed that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Justice and Home Affairs, being satisfied that the said registration was obtained by means of fraud, has issued an Order in terms of subarticle (1) of article 14 of the Maltese Citizenship Act (Cap 188), which Order is being herewith enclosed. You are now required to call immediately at this Department regarding your immigration position in Malta and to return your certificate of registration as a citizen of Malta (No 5735). Yours faithfully ...” 19. The decision to deprive the applicant of his Maltese citizenship of 31 July 2007 did not take into account the fact that he had not kept ties with his country of origin and his relatives in Egypt, that he had been living in Malta for over twenty years, that he spoke Maltese and that he was perfectly integrated into Maltese culture and society, having three children of Maltese citizenship living in Malta. Furthermore, it failed to consider that the applicant would become a stateless person as a result of the decision, and that at the time of his application for Maltese citizenship it had been a prerequisite for the applicant to renounce his Egyptian citizenship, which he in fact did, since dual nationality was not possible from an Egyptian perspective. In sum, the ministerial decision failed to perform the Karassev balancing exercise. As can be seen literally from its text and the subsequent letter of notification, the order was an automatic application of the relevant legal provision, namely Article 14 (1) of the Maltese Citizenship Act. Yet the Minister had to be satisfied that deprivation of citizenship was conducive to the public good. The negative formulation of Article 14 (3) of the same Maltese law, according to which the Minister should not deprive someone of citizenship unless he is satisfied that it is not conducive to the public good that that person should continue to be a citizen of Malta, does not hinder the conclusion that the public good had to be factored into the ministerial decision. But no explicit consideration was given in the ministerial order to this matter, since quite paradoxically Article 19 of the said Maltese law does not even require the Minister’s decision to be