Sofia inquiry: government accused of spinning on magistrate’s ‘extension’

The controversy over the Jean Paul Sofia magisterial inquiry is drawing the inquiring magistrate into a propaganda war being registered on social media.

A vigil for Sofia, the 19-year-old victim of a construction collapse, was held outside Castille Square in Valletta on Monday evening after Prime Minister Robert Abela relented on his refusal for a parallel, public inquiry into the death of the teenager.

On Abela’s U-turn, communicated personally to Sofia’s mother Isabelle Bonnici, news also emerged that the inquiring magistrate had requested a two-month extension on the inquiry.

Government critics, chiefly former Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, accused the Abela administration of misinformation in its bid to pin procedural delays on the Sofia magisterial inquiry on Magistrate Marseann Farrugia. Abela has long criticised delays in this inquiry by way of explaining his refusal to launch a public inquiry into the Sofia construction death.

“Victoria Buttigieg is in collusion with the government to foment the lie on the inquiring magistrate, to induce the magistrate to submit a simple note on the delay as per Article 550 [COCP], so that the government uses it as an excuse,” Azzopardi claimed on Facebook.

While the government stated that the magistrate had requested a two-month extension for completion of the inquiry, Azzopardi said the law mandates magistrates to inform the Attorney General of the reason for any delay in the completion of such proces-verbals every 60 days.

At law, the magistrate’s inquiry is presented only to the Attorney General, not to the government. When the inquiry is not completed within two months or 60 days, the magistrate informs the AG with a report within three days of the lapse of that period.

The ‘report’ is procedural and is repeated every month, but critics insist this is not a request to extend the inquiry

The minister for justice, Jonathan Attard, reacted to statements on social media attacking AG Victoria Buttigieg, claiming a judicial writ she filed on the inquiry ‘delay’ was the only way to keep the inquiring magistrate “accountable”.

“This legal procedure has been uses for years, with the AG last year filing 505 such procedural writs in these pending magisterial inquiries. I unequivocally condemn the senseless attacks against the AG.”