Graft sentence reduction: Azzopardi demands investigation into ‘judicial scandal’

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi has called for an investigation by the Commission for the Administration of Justice in a speech in a parliament, where he alluded to a possible case of collusion after a former prosecutor joined the defence team of Yorgen Fenech, the alleged mastermind in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Azzopardi claimed that as a state prosecutor with the Attorney General, Mercieca had decided not to insist on a four-year prison sentence for a convicted Fisheries Department employee, whose sentence was reduced to a three-year probation on appeal.

He also alleged that Mercieca had been a frequent guest of Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera, who presided over the appeal of Francis Caruana last week.

In 2014, Caruana, now 60, was charged with money laundering, extortion, misappropriation and fraud to the detriment of the Fisheries department, after discrepancies were flagged up during internal audits. After admitting to the charges, his four-year prison sentence last week was reduced to three years of probation on appeal.

Azzopardi said in parliament this was a “judicial scandal”.

In the appeal decision handed down on 15 May, the judge observed that there was no insistence on an effective prison term by the Attorney General at the appeal stage – also adding that society would “derive no protection” from the man’s incarceration, since he should keep up with his repayments to his victims.

“This declaration is crucial,” Azzopardi said in the House. “It shows that during appeals stage, there was sentence bargaining between the AG’s official and the accused.”

Azzopardi insisted that no such bargain can be made without first informing and having the approval of the Attorney General or the deputy AG themselves.

“Mr Speaker I am in a position to reveal that Charles Mercieca, who just a few days ago left the state prosecutor to join the Yorgen Fenech defence, made this sentence bargaining behind the back of the AG. They were not informed, when he was obliged to.”

Mercieca’s departure from the AG, where he paid his leave so that he could appear by the side of Yorgen Fenech a mere 24 hours later, has now become the subject of a government inquiry led by former Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi. Mercieca had appeared on a constitutional case filed by Fenech against the Public Health Superintendent, alongside defence lawyer Gianluca Caruana Curran.

Azzopardi also claimed that Mercieca was invited to the house of the Judge herself, Consuelo Scerri Herrera, on social occasions. He did not specify when.

“It is a known fact amongst many lawyers, that the lawyer himself was invited several times for dinner at home of the judge who decreed this sentence, because he is her son’s best buddy.”

Azzopardi then said that Mercieca had also been in negotiations with the government’s fisheries department two months before leaving the AG’s employ, to be engaged as the department’s legal consultant. “That is, while he was the prosecutor in the case of money laundering against the department’s own employee, during its appeal stage!” Azzopardi charged.

He also added that in 2019, while Mercieca was a trainee lawyer at the AG’s office – one year after having obtained his warrant – he had applied for a post at the European Public Prosecutor’s Office “despite not having any experience in mutual legal assistance” as laid down in the call.

“Naturally, on 5 December 2019, his application was thrown out when the interview took place in Luxembourg… and yet he was eligible to defend the case of the century when 24 hours earlier he had been on the other side of the fence,” he said, referring to Mercieca’s appearance on the legal team defending Yorgen Fenech.