Lawyers cleared of attempted bribery of journalist after Attorney General bungle

Updated at 12:48pm with Repubblika statement

Yorgen Fenech’s lawyers have been cleared of attempted bribery of a journalist after the magistrate ruled the relevant offence was not properly indicated by the Attorney General.

Charles Mercieca and Gianluca Caruana Curran had been charged by the police of attempting to bribe Times of Malta journalist Ivan Martin by handing him hundreds of euros at the end of a meeting at their Valletta office.

However, when delivering judgment on Monday, Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras noted that while the lawyers were charged with active bribery by the police, the Attorney General indicated a different provision of law denoting passive bribery.

This apparent bungle by the AG forced the magistrate to clear the two lawyers without even entering into the merits of the case.

In her ruling, Galea Sciberras noted that the journalist had not accepted the money offered to him and the prosecution had no intention of charging him with passive bribery because he steadfastly refused the cash.

She said that although the police’s prosecution in the case was linked to the charge of active bribery in the lawyers’ regard, the AG’s decision to refer to passive bribery threw everything out of the window. The only person who could have been charged with passive corruption could have been the journalist but he did not play ball and there was never the intention to charge him.

The magistrate ruled: “Insofar as no act of passive corruption was carried out, it is inconceivable that the accused be considered accomplices to such a crime.”

She noted that legislators had crafted a law that spoke clearly of two separate crimes – active corruption and passive corruption.

On these grounds, the magistrate did not enter into the merits of the case and acquitted the two lawyers.

The incident had happened in November 2020 when at the end of the 20-minute meeting in Valletta, Caruana Curran handed over a number of folded €500 notes. The lawyer had admitted that “remuneration was offered” and that he only offered the money because he had never dealt with a journalist before.

Martin had refused the money and a day later, Times of Malta ran a story about the alleged bribery.

Lawyers Giannella de Marco and Stephen Tonna Lowell were defence counsel to Caruana Curran and Mercieca.

Repubblika wants AG to resign

Meanwhile, rule of law NGO Repubblika has reiterated its call for the resignation of Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg in view of this latest bungle.

In a statement, Repubblika said this was not a simple mistake. “Today, the Maltese state is telling honest people it will not protect them. Today, those who thought that they can do as they please because of their money, even bribe a journalist, can take heart because the Maltese state will protect them.”

Repubblika said government should not remain silent in front of this “dirt”.

“Parliament has the tools to address serious situations like these if the Attorney General does not resign voluntarily,” the group said.