PAC wants Yorgen Fenech to testify in Electrogas hearings

The Public Accounts Committee will request the director of prisons to allow the alleged mastermind in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Yorgen Fenech, to testify in the hearings on the NAO inquiry on the Electrogas power plant.

If accepted by the prisons director, it will be the first public appearance of Fenech – save for his court hearings – in a forum other than the criminal court.

The PAC hearings of former chief of staff Keith Schembri had to be suspended after Schembri filed a constitutional case, claiming a breach of his rights when PAC chairman Darren Carabott and two Nationalist MPs filed a criminal report alleging perjury.

The Speaker has since ruled that the PAC cannot resume questioning Schembri until the Constitutional Court decides on his claim.

“It sets an ugly precedent,” Carabott commented to PAC members upon communicating the Speaker’s ruling.

Government MPs Alex Muscat and Andy Ellul reacted by saying that for PAC witnesses to give information freely, they cannot be constrained by the actions of MPs, referring to Carabott’s request for a criminal investigation.

“It is you who created this precedent,” Ellul told Carabott, who attempted to cut the discussion short due to the constitutional case being under review. “It would have been wiser to allow Schembri’s testimony finish.”

Labour MP Alex Muscat said government MPs would not contest the Speaker’s ruling, with the PAC proceeding to suspend Schembri’s testimony.