Repubblika wants AG to send P52 probe back for further investigation

Attorney General Peter Grech has been requested to send back the acts of the magisterial inquiry into Repubblika’s claims of homicide of migrants by AFM personnel who allegedly sabotaged their boat.

In a letter to the AG, signed by lawyers Paul Borg Olivier, Andrew Borg Cardona, Evelyn Borg Costanzi and Joseph Ellis, the NGO said the procès-verbal was lacking in the formalities required under the Criminal Code.

A number of shortcomings were identified by the NGO, amongst them a failure to investigate the deaths of 12 immigrants, irregularities in the appointment of experts and a failure to hear testimony from surviving migrants who are being detained in Libya.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud, who led the inquiry, had “deliberately used electronic means to hear witnesses based abroad whilst excluding others (survivors) despite the existence of other means of hearing these testimonies,” argued Repubblika.

Other complaints included the “complete sidelining of the depositions given by Clyde Caruana, Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister and that of Neville Gafa,” which were “hidden” from the court file, in breach of the law and a reference by a court expert to “phantom witnesses” who did not appear on the list of 66 immigrants rescued.

Neither were witnesses from the Italian authorities or Frontex heard, pointed out the NGO, also pointing out that the magistrate had failed to check whether the AFM’s other assets had indeed been occupied at the time, as had been claimed by AFM commander Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi.

The inquiry had been held under a political shadow and had ignored clear evidence of the rescue operation working as a pushback, said the lawyer.

The magistrate had “almost completely abdicated” from the task of trying to establish the number of deaths and the names of the dead, said Repubblika, who were only mentioned in the report by the NGO and an application made by the family members of two of the victims.

Despite knowing that the migrants had been at sea for over two and a half days, Brigadier Curmi had waited for over 24 hours to request the OPM to coordinate the use of private vessels to rescue them, argued the NGO. It quoted the owner of the Dar al Salaam, Carmelo Grech as saying that the migrants had been “five days hungry and thirsty.”

The procès-verbal also lacked the report of lawyer Lennox Vella, who had been engaged by the court to hear the testimony of the survivors – another practise criticised by Repubblika, it said.

The NGO requested that an unredacted copy of the procès-verbal be made available to it.