Labour insists on Galea Curmi's 'political interference' during Engerer investigation

In a second statement issued during the day, the Labour Party reacted to comments given by Edgar Galea Curmi and the Nationalist Party, and said that “the Prime Minister had lost direction.”

Reacting to Galea Curmi’s comments whereby he said that he had not interfered in any way, the PL said that Galea Curmi had admitted calling Commissioner John Rizzo to ask about criminal charges, and asked him to do something - which the Commissioner said – “he could not do.”

Again, Labour accused the Prime Minister of appointing an inquiry to “cover himself” and  setting the terms of reference himself.

Also, the Prime Minister appointed Judge Albert Manche to head the inquiry, whom according to the PL “is a person who during the 12 years at the helm of the Commission Against Corruption, never found any trace of corruption in the country.”

Meanwhile, Cyrus Engerer is expected to present a judicial protest against the Commissioner of Police and the Court Registrar in a bid to seek redress for having his charges leaked to the media before he was even notified, causing predjudice to his case and denying him a fair trial.

The judicial protest to be presented by defence lawyer Franco Debono is expected to rebut Police Commissioner John Rizzo’s claim about court documents being automatically in the public domain.

Debono said that contrary to Rizzo’s claims, such documents are actually protected at law. 

According to Rizzo, once the charge sheet was filed in court, it was automatically in the public domain and therefore could be freely accessed by anyone.

But Debono rebuts this. “There is a legal concept which is pre-trial prejudicial publicity, applicable to this case, where the Court may have considered issuing a ban on names to protect the alleged victim (in this case, Marvic Camilleri).”

Debono claims that in Engerer’s case, “the whole scenario was shaken.”

Criminal Code section 518 states that: “the acts and documents of the courts of criminal justice shall not be open to inspection, nor shall copies thereof be given, without the special permission of the court, except by or to the Attorney General, by or to the parties concerned or by or to any advocate or legal procurator authorized by such parties; but any act, which is pronounced in open court, shall be open to inspection by any person, and copies thereof may be given on payment of the usual fee. Provided that a procès-verbal and any depositions and documents filed therewith shall be open to inspection, and copies thereof shall be given, only at the discretion of the Attorney General and on payment of such fees as may be prescribed by the Minister responsible for justice as provided in article 695.”