Judge and two magistrates to be appointed this week

Magaistrate Antonio Mizzi is set to be appointed judge on Friday, while laywers Charmaine Galea and Aaron Bugeja are to be appointed magistrates, sources told MaltaToday.

Last month, justice ministry sources informed MaltaToday that the government's intended to fill in at least two vacancies.

Parliamentary secretary Owen Bonnici informed the government on the 13 March, just days after the election of Labour to power, that two new members of the judiciary had to be appointed "urgently", but the same sources denied previous reports that the appointments were being rushed ahead of a reform in the justice sector.

The previous administration had suspended the appointment of new members of the judiciary before the introduction of the new framework for the appointment of judicial members. The last appointments were done in October 2012, when Lorraine Schembri Orland was sworn in as judge and Natasha Galea Sciberras as magistrate at the Courts of Justice.

Magistrate Antonio Mizzi and lawyers  Charmaine Galea and Aaron Bugeja are set to be sworn in on Friday morning, taking the total of judges and magistrates to 43.

Mizzi is husband to Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi, while Galea works at the law firm of Labour deputy leader for party affairs Toni Abela. Galea is a practicing lawyer while Bugeja works at the Attorney General's office.  

Ministry sources had told MaltaToday the appointments only come in response to two vacancies in the judiciary triggered by the resignation of judge Ray Pace, which took place three whole months before the new government's swearing-in; and Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna's retirement during the same period.