House Business Committee votes down request for investigation

The parliamentary House Business Committee's governmenmt members have voted against a request by Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi to request an investigation of the Ombudsman into the grievances commission headed by former Armed Forces of Malta commander Maurice Calleja.

Brigadier Calleja resigned his position in 1993 when his son Meinrad Calleja was charged with drug trafficking. In July 2013 he was tasked with heading a commission to consider claims of injustices suffered by soldiers and officers.

Azzopardi has claimed that Calleha is not "the most suitable person" for the job. "He has an axe to grind. And that is putting it very mildly. This is a person with a huge chip on his shoulder and that's putting it very mildly. And the government now wants him to investigate injustices in the AFM," Azzopardi had said in parliament.

Over the past years, Brigadier Calleja served as a ballistic expert in the law courts.

He resigned from the army in 1993 when his son, Meinrad Calleja, faced drug-trafficking charges. Calleja's son was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.

In 1994, Meinrad Calleja was also accused of complicity in the attempted murder of Richard Cachia Caruana, then personal assistant to prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami. He was later acquitted in the ensuring trial by jury.