Chris Said wants inquiry to investigate Caruana Galizia 'targets'... including PN leader

Nationalist MP Chris Said has filed a parliamentary motion for a board of inquiry to be set up to investigate the writings and allegations made by the late Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killing in a car bomb attack on 16 October.

The motion was presented after Said, writing on Facebook last week, called for ‘concrete action’ to be taken by parliament in wake of Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

“I will continue working for concrete steps to be taken immediately by the Maltese Parliament. I will work so that all that Daphne investigated and wrote about does not stop here,” stressed Said.  

Asked whether the motion envisages the investigation of MPs, Said referred this newspaper to the Article 124 of the constitution, which defines public officer as “the holder of any public office or of a person appointed to act in any such office”. Public office is defined as “an office of emolument in the public service”, meaning that MPs from both side of the House, including the Opposition leader, would be open to investigation.

Moreover, when asked whether the motion had been discussed with Delia himself, Said said that “last week I informed the parliamentary group and there were no objections”.

In his motion, Said requested that the Prime Minister appoint a board of inquiry, in accordance with the Inquiries Act, led by three retired judges “known for their integrity and honesty”, with one serving as a chairman, that are agreed upon by a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives.

The board would be tasked with:

1. Investigating the behaviour of public officials and officials employed with any entity established at law.
2. Investigating the leadership of every Government department or any entity established at law, including but not limited to, the Police Corps, the Office of the Attorney General and the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, and others.
3. Examining everything else falling under the functions or the responsibility of any department or entity, that is related to, or impacts, Government services.
4. Determining acts of corruption, abuse of power or other crimes committed by the aforementioned individuals, and any shortcomings committed by these individuals and entities in carrying out their duties according to the law.
5. Making recommendations deemed necessary and opportune based on the conclusions of the Board.

According to the motion, each of the above terms of reference should be investigated in light of allegations made by Caruana Galizia in relation to each of the mentioned individuals or entities.

Chris Said motion for 'DCG inquiry' by MaltaToday dotcomdotmt on Scribd

In his motion, Said stressed that the board should be given all the resources necessary in order to carry out its investigation.

Moreover, the motion states that the Board should be given full access to any object, document, report, information, evidence, file, computer, programme or electronic data in the Government of any of it’s department’s possession, including the Police Corps, the AG’s office, and the FIAU.

Upon its conclusion, the motion states that a final report should be presented to the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the House by not later than six months from today, and should be published immediately.