Updated | Mintoff new judge, Fenech Adami: nomination against ‘spirit of justice reform’

The government has appointed former Labour MP and a founder of Alternattiva Demokratika, Wenzu Mintoff, as a judge.

He will be sworn in on Thursday.

Mintoff, head of legal at Malta Enterprise, had until recently been acting as editor of Labour organ KullHadd.

Mintoff will join the judiciary in the Superior Courts, making him the sixth appointment to the bench by the Labour government after two judges and three magistrates.

His appointment was met with muted criticism by PN deputy leader for party affairs Beppe Fenech Adami: "For all the words on transparency, the government did not consult the Opposition, and this appointment comes straight from inside the world of politics - people like former Labour MP Philip Sciberras and former PN candidate Lorraine Schembri Orland had long distanced themselves from politics at the time of their appointments," Fenech Adami said.

"Does it increase the people's faith in the judiciary? I don't think so. The nomination goes against the spirit of the reform of the judiciary that is taking place," the MP said.

Fenech Adami also questioned whether Mintoff, who does not practice in the law courts, had the necessary experience to be appointed judge, citing the case of Andre Camilleri as an example: Fenech Adami's father Eddie wanted to make Camilleri judge in 2002, but his nomination was turned down by the Commission for the Administration of Justice for not having been a practising lawyer for a minimum of 12 years.

Rupture from Labour, AD founder

Mintoff, 54, is married with a daughter. He attended the Bormla and Zabbar primary schools, and the Hamrun Lyceum. He later attended the De La Salle College in Bormla, and went on to study economics at the University of Malta before graduating in law in 1984.

In 1983, he formed part of the staff at the Maltese embassy in New York, when the country occupied the presidency of the United Nations' Security Council.

In 1989, Mintoff - then Labour whip and a former secretary-general of the Labour youth wing - resigned from the MLP along with Toni Abela, in protest at the party's tolerance of corrupt activists and MPs: his main target at the time had been former minister Lorry Sant.

After resigning, he founded Green Party Alternattiva Demokratika, and sat as an MP for AD until 1992.

He occupied the position of head of legal at Malta Development Corporation and its successor, Malta Enterprise, where he formed part of negotiation teams on Maltese investment agreements with 15 different countries.