Caruana Galizia family to be parties in Yorgen Fenech's constitutional case over bail

A judge has ruled that the heirs of murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia have a right to be inducted as a party in a case filed by Yorgen Fenech against the State Advocate over his denial of bail.

Lawyer Peter Caruana Galizia had argued that the Caruana Galizia family had a direct interest to see that the investigations into Yorgen Fenech, who is accused of complicity in the murder, be carried out effectively.

The family also based its request on fundamental rights, arguing that the State had an obligation to carry out effective investigations and have effective procedures so that justice is served.

Fenech opposed the family’s being introduced to the case as it was of a constitutional nature, between him and the State and dealt with the length of his remand in custody.

Presiding the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction, Madame Justice Miriam Hayman, after an academic examination of the institute of induction in statu et terminis into a case, observed that the Caruana Galizia family had two types of interest: a personal and emotive one as well as a juridical interest in the outcome of an application filed by Yorgen Fenech and his attack on the decrees denying him bail.

The judge noted that “…it is held also in constitutional cases that even individuals who are not answerable for the alleged breach may have an interest in the outcome of the same case.”

She held that the institute of induction in statu et terminis was not exclusive to civil cases and that it could not isolate the interest of the parte civile in the criminal sphere from that shown in a constitutional or conventional one, when the aim being sought after was juridically the same in the criminal and the constitutional cases.

As a result of this, the court upheld the request for the parties’ inclusion and fixed an abbreviated term for them to present their reply to Fenech’s requests.