‘A desperate keep-me-out-of-jail card’ – Bonello on magisterial inquiry bill

Aqra bil-Malti

Former European Court of Human Rights Judge Giovanni Bonello has joined the legal experts voicing concern about the rushed changes being pushed through parliament on magisterial inquiries.

He told The Shift that he “endorsed, without reservations, the condemnation expressed by former chief justice Silvio Camilleri for this last, sordid and desperate keep-me-out-of-jail card.”

Prime Minister Robert Abela’s speech during the second reading of Bill 125 in parliament on Tuesday did not quell concerns.

The Bill proposes changing how citizens can request a magisterial inquiry by first going to the police and presenting evidence for an investigation before a request can be made to a judge six months later.

Former chief justice Silvio Camilleri said the new Bill will “only serve to shield politicians and their persons of trust from investigation”.

He said the government had “captured” the police and the Attorney General’s office and “now seeks to tie up all remaining loose ends”.

The rushed reform being proposed was only thought of when the government “started to be fruitfully investigated for gross wrongdoing by magistrates because the Police Commissioner wouldn’t budge,” Camilleri noted.

The investigations into the Vitals / Steward Health Care deal on public hospitals was made possible as a result of a request for a magisterial inquiry. It resulted in a slew of charges against the former Labour administration heads, including former prime minister Joseph Muscat, former minister Konrad Mizzi, former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri as well as public officials and companies involved.

This, most believe, is the real reason Abela wants to limit citizens’ right to request an investigation by the courts. Another magisterial inquiry on Dubai company 17 Black, allegedly set up to pass on kickbacks to that same administration, continued to add pressure on the Abela administration.

Abela called this “an abuse of justice”, and the Bill forces citizens to first go to the police, who have shown in the past that they were not prepared to investigate the government and went as far as faking evidence and spreading leaks to protect those in power.

Magisterial inquiries have delivered investigations that would otherwise never have been conducted.

Law professor Kevin Aquilina called the Bill “the latest nail in the rule of law coffin”. He slammed the Bill, saying its aim was “to minimise governmental accountability and embed therein the culture of impunity into Maltese law.”

Aquilina said the Bill was “not dictated by the common good of society or by the public interest but by the selfish interest of a few who have turned the state of Malta into their fiefdom, the Maltese into their vassals, the government coffers into their own private wealth, and public property into their own possession.”

Unlike some criminal lawyers supporting the Bill, these respected legal minds do not seek public attention. They only speak up when a matter is of grave concern. They have come forward to voice the serious threat to democracy being pushed by Prime Minister Robert Abela.

The Chamber of Advocates said in a statement it could not understand the government’s “rush” to push this Bill through parliament, saying the process did not allow for proper scrutiny of what was being proposed despite the serious consequences involved.

The Chamber harshly criticised the proposed Bill, saying the elimination of the right to resort to a magistrate was “unacceptable”. “It should be the court, not the police, to decide if enough reason exists for an inquiry to be launched.

In parliament on Tuesday, the prime minister stuck to his guns, slamming the Opposition for voting against the Bill in its first reading.

In return, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said this was a Bill to protect those in power from facing the consequences of any wrongdoing.

He pointed out that when referring to people ‘wrongly investigated’, Abela failed to mention former prime minister Joseph Muscat, who is now facing charges, including money laundering and fraud, among others.

“He [Abela] wants to pass this law so citizens cannot request an investigation into the government,” Grech said.