NGOs condemn Malta prime minister’s hostile speech on Vitals inquiry magistrate

The prime minister’s press conference in which he took apart the conclusions of a magisterial inquiry calling for charges to be issued against former Labour leader Joseph Muscat has drawn condemnation from NGOs and student bodies.

The anti-corruption NGO Repubblika, whose criminal complaint in 2019 on the hospitals privatisation concession sparked the magisterial inquiry, said Robert Abela’s singling-out of Magistrate Gabriella Vella on completing the inquiry targeted any public official who acted lawfully in line with the inquiry’s findings.

“We express deep concern at the authoritarian and fascist public utterances made by Prime Minister Robert Abela… Implicitly, the targeting extends to any public official in the judiciary, the police, and the prosecution service who acts lawfully in line with the findings of that inquiry,” Repubblika said.

Abela has launched an emphatic public campaign claiming that the inquiring magistrate forms part of an “establishment” cabal within legal circles, suggesting she was enabling partisan retribution on Joseph Muscat and the Labour Party.

Several government officials have now take up the remarks, intended to weaken the inquiry’s foundations as criminal charges against Muscat, former chief of staff Keith Schembri, and former health minister Konrad Mizzi could be pending.

“Once again we see a coordinated effort conducted from the Office of the Prime Minister and led by the incumbent in that office, to undermine the credibility of anyone taking the evidence of bribery and corruption to their logical and legal conclusion, to threaten them, to intimidate them, and to ensure that people reasonably suspected of crime and corruption and any political associates with them continue to enjoy impunity,” Repubblika said.

“The Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry found this conduct to be the cause of her killing, for which the inquiry found the Maltese state responsible.”

Repubblika said Abela was wrong about his claim that he served as a ‘check and balance’ over the judiciary, arguing that this was itself anti-Contistutional. “The Prime Minister’s conduct amounts to a gross assault on judicial independence and the rule of law.”

“As civil society activists who campaign for democracy and the rule of law, we cannot stand idly by as the prime minister assaults judicial independence and undermines equality before the law in his interests and the interests of his party. We will resist this attack and we will stand by state officials of conscience,” Repubblika said.

The human rights NGO Aditus said Abela’s speech had left no room for interpretation, calling it a direct and unequivocal undermining of people simply because he is not comfortable with their activities.

“A Prime Minister should under no circumstance exploit his power to shame, bully or intimidate anyone. When the targets are the judiciary and journalists, the entire nation should rise up in their defence and claim ‘Enough!’,” Aditus director Neil Falzon said.

The NGO said the Prime Minister’s statements demonstrated a clear disregard for the foundations of democracy in Malta.

“By openly criticising and undermining the judiciary, the Prime Minister is eroding the separation of powers and compromising the impartiality of our legal system. His attempts to intimidate and discredit judges who uphold the Constitution and defend the rights of citizens are nothing short of an assault on justice itself,” Falzon said.

“Furthermore, the Prime Minister’s attacks on journalists and media organisations represent a dangerous escalation in his campaign to silence dissent and suppress freedom of expression. They embody his cowardly attempt to delegitimise the vital role of the press in holding power to account and informing the public.”

From Brussels, the incumbent MEP David Casa also called on former finance minister Edward Scicluna, who could face a second tier of charges on the Vitals hospitals saga, to resign his position at the Central Bank.

Casa said that he had “appealed” to the President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde, to mitigate any reputational damage that would arise from Scicluna retaining his post as Central Bank Governor, while fighting criminal charges related to his term in office in the Joseph Muscat cabinet.

“Your continued tenure at the Central Bank will irreparably damage the reputation of our country as a financial centre,” Casa told Scicluna. “It would be disastrous to have key figures in the country’s key office-holders that are meant to convince the world of the nation’s regulatory integrity while concurrently fighting criminal charges over their own impropriety.”

Several student organisations will be holding a protest in solidarity with the judiciary at 8pm outside the law courts in Valletta. “We urge all citizens to stand up in defence of our democratic institutions. We must demand accountability from those in power,” the law students’ association GħSL said.