Attorney General bound by professional secrecy – Speaker

Professional secrecy stopped the Attorney General from replying to questions raised by the privileges committee and he was right in doing so, Speaker Anglu Farrugia ruled this evening.

Farrugia was asked to give a ruling by Nationalist MP Chris Said after AG Peter Grech refused to answer questions raised by the privileges committee, explaining that he was bound by professional secrecy.

Grech was testifying before the committee investigating a breach of privilege complaint raised by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat against Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, who in October accused the prime minister of interfering in the police investigation against the former EU commissioner John Dalli.

Farrugia ruled that Grech was bound by professional secrecy and only the government – as its client – could exempt him from it.

The Speaker also ruled that it was up to the same committee to decide whether Grech should present the committee with a copy of a letter he had sent to then Police Commissioner John Rizzo.

“It is up to the committee to decide whether the letter should form part of the documentation of the privileges committee,” he said.