New judiciary appointments sail past without public scrutiny

The appointment of three new magistrates, Patrick Valentino, Claudio Zammit, and Franca Giordmaina, along with Charmaine Galea’s promotion to Judge, were quietly announced over the weekend without any public scrutiny of each new member of the judiciary’s history or background.

The Office of the President, which is responsible for publishing the official announcement, does not provide such information when new appointments are made. Publishing background information about new judicial appointments typically falls to journalists, and this weekend’s announcement was largely reported verbatim without any context.

While a member of the judiciary’s personal history and family connections do not necessarily imply anything about the individual magistrate or Judge, making relevant information public is essential to maintaining the integrity of the transparency standards the judiciary must uphold.

In that respect, the fact that Malta now has two members of the judiciary in a long-term relationship – Madam Justice Rachel Montebello and newly appointed Magistrate Patrick Valentino – is significant, as it amounts to a concentration of judicial power in two individuals who are close to each other.

Prior to his appointment to the Bench, Valentino had made headlines as one of the figures involved in the Gozo land grab saga.

Valentino was the rector of the Abbazia di Sant’ Antonio della Navarra, a 400-year-old medieval foundation that successfully filed eviction proceedings against residents in Qala and Nadur in a complex legal battle over property claims that date back centuries.

In his role as rector of the Abbazia, Valentino was responsible for the decision to lease land that residents believed they owned, only to have it claimed by the Foundation.

The company that the land was leased out to is named Carravan Ltd. Besides Valentino, former Judge Dennis Montebello (Judge Rachel Montebello’s father) and former Gozo Curia lawyer Carmelo Galea were also involved.

The land grab in Nadur and Qala occurred with the sole purpose of using the acquired plots to build apartment complexes, with their very first acquisition turning into 150 flats in Qala owned by developer Joseph Portelli.

Malta’s newest Judge, Charmaine Galea, is also the sister of one of the other two new magistrates appointed over the weekend, Claudio Zammit. Zammit previously served as a local councillor in their family’s hometown, Żurrieq.

The third and final magistrate to join the Bench is Franca Giordmaina. Her sister, Maria Micallef, was recently the first woman to be appointed as Chair of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD), an influential advisory council that issues opinions and recommendations to the Maltese government on matters of economic and social relevance.