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Anglu
Farrugia defends his turf
By
Miriam Dunn
Labour party spokesman, Anglu Farrugia, who stood as a defence lawyer
for Justice ministry member of staff, Claudio Grech, yesterday said
he found nothing bizarre in supporting Opposition leader, Alfred
Sant's severe criticism of the secretariat employee's brush with
the law.
And the MLP spokesman on justice told MaltaToday that he had the
full support of the party leader, who called on Justice minister,
Austin Gatt, to resign over the revelation that Grech had a criminal
record.
Asked how he defended his position, Dr Farrugia stressed that he
had not represented Mr Grech in the Criminal court, where he had
been found guilty of falsifying a Police ID card.
"Mr Grech's lawyer at this time was Dr Mario de Marco, I had
nothing to do with the criminal case," he said. "I had
defended him when he appeared in front of the Public Services' Commission
with regard to how he presented himself as a candidate for the police
exams and for this, he was acquitted."
The MLP spokesman rejected any suggestion that there might have
been a conflict of interests, adding that he had had the full support
of the MLP leader when seconding the motion.
"Dr Sant maintained that he was not saying Mr Grech couldn't
be defended," he said, "rather, the argument was whether
he should be in a post at the ministry when he had a conviction."
Claudio Grech is the second member of staff at the Justice ministry
to cause Dr Gatt problems. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Justice
minister offered his resignation after one of his employees, Andre
Carbonaro, was arrested on charges relating to exchange control
regulations.
It is also not the first time that eyebrows have been raised over
Dr Farrugia's clients; last year there were questions asked as to
whether, as an MLP spokesman, he saw any problems in the fact that
he had defended the Cospicua mayor, Paul Muscat, when he was being
investigated by the MLP disciplinary board for his allegations of
vote-rigging at the party leadership election of 1992.
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