Protecting honest citizens from persecution and vendettas

Picture this. You are a law-abiding citizen. Suddenly, someone accuses you of wrongdoing and requests a magisterial inquiry in your regard. Your life turns upside down. You’re at a loss, uncertain of the future, afraid of what will happen next, until the request for the magisterial inquiry is thrown out by the courts. But by then, your name would have made news headlines, and your reputation would have been tarnished. The person who had accused you of wrongdoing apologises, or doesn’t care less, and moves on to the next target. You are left to carry the can.

Prime Minister Robert Abela wants to address this unfair, wrong, and cruel situation. The Prime Minister is adamant, and so are we, his Cabinet of ministers, on reforming the system that allows an individual to request a magisterial inquiry (in legal terms, it is referred to as the in genere inquiry).

The Opposition, on the other hand, is adamant in shooting down any proposed changes.

MP Karol Aquilina, the PN spokesperson for justice, has gone one step further. In a recent interview with MaltaToday, he said that a PN government would revert any changes made to magisterial inquiries. In a nutshell, the PN opposes any reform even if it is necessary to protect law abiding, honest citizens, and businesses from being the target of cruel and villainous attacks from individuals adamant on destroying peoples’ lives.

On Christmas Eve, magisterial inquiries were filed against ministers Clint Camilleri and Silvio Schembri, their respective spouses and high-ranking civil servants, including Robert Vella, the Lands Authority CEO. The allegations were first made in an online news portal, and based on these allegations, former PN MP Jason Azzopardi filed legal proceedings asking for magisterial inquiries.

A few days ago, a court turned down Azzopardi’s request for a magisterial inquiry into the Lands Authority CEO. In a decree, Magistrate Philip Galea Farrugia said the applicant had not presented enough evidence to justify such a probe and threw out Azzopardi’s magisterial inquiry request.

This came on the back of libel proceedings instituted by Cabinet Secretary Ryan Spagnol, which were eventually dropped after Azzopardi admitted that the allegations he had made in Spagnol’s regard were ‘mistaken’.

It happened to me too, a few years back, when the same former PN MP accused me of wrongdoing. I had filed legal proceedings and Azzopardi eventually retracted his claims.

My colleague, Labour MP Carmelo Abela, too, was accused by Azzopardi of criminal wrongdoing. Carmelo filed libel proceedings, and the courts found in his favour.

It is high time to put a stop to this cruelty. This is why changes are needed to the way in genere inquiries are launched on the request of a private individual.

Allegations that the government wants to restrict the rights of citizens to request magisterial inquiries is hogwash. This is the last thing that the government has on its mind.

Citizens’ right to trigger magisterial inquiries shall remain. The government will not deprive citizens of that right. However, increased scrutiny is a must. Requesting a magisterial inquiry is not a matter that should be taken lightly.

As I have already stated in comments to the press; those who are serious and want to file a report against alleged wrongdoing can go to the police. The reform to the initiation of magisterial inquiries on the request of private citizens needs to be done, first and foremost, to protect honest citizens.

In the case of politicians and public officials, those who are privy to wrongdoing by them can also go to the Ombudsman, the Standards Commissioner, the Auditor General, or the Permanent Commission Against Corruption. There is also a legal framework in place for whistle blowers, as well as other authorities such as the FIAU.

In recent years, the Labour Party in government has carried out widespread reforms to our justice system to ensure that our institutions work more efficiently and with increased independence to the benefit of all citizens.

Labour enhanced the autonomy of prosecutions, increased judicial scrutiny, and introduced procedures to safeguard the rights of suspects, such as their right to a lawyer during arrest and the right to disclosure.

I am honoured to have played a significant part in the execution of these reforms in my role as justice minister. My hardworking successors in this role, Edward Zammit Lewis and Jonathan Attard, continued these reforms and implemented further ones.

The Opposition is adamant in preserving the status quo and allowing magisterial inquiries to be abused by the self-styled blue heroes – it suits their needs, primarily that of political persecution and political vendetta that this extremist faction of the Nationalist Party specialises in.

The government is equally adamant that magisterial inquiries shouldn’t be used as a tool for political persecution or vendetta.