Busuttil and Casa intervention to be decided before request for postponement in Konrad Mizzi human rights case

A day before Minister Konrad Mizzi’s Panama Papers human rights case is due to continue, Mr. Justice Robert Mangion has decreed that a request for the postponement of proceedings before the Criminal Court will be decided after a decision is made in the request for the intervention in proceedings of PN MEP Simon Busuttil and MP David Casa.

Mr. Justice Giovanni Grixti presiding the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction is due to hear submissions tomorrow in the case filed by Mizzi as one of seven high profile individuals into whom an investigation was ordered by Magistrate Ian Farrugia following revelations emerging from the Panama Papers. 

Mizzi is claiming that the judicial process, kicked off by Busuttil, was simply an attempt “to cast a shadow upon his integrity”.

In a flurry of urgent court applications beginning last Friday, Mizzi had asked the court to grant an interim measure, preventing Mr. Justice Grixti from hearing the appeal case before Mr. Justice Robert Mangion decides the Constitutional issue raised.

Yesterday, lawyer Jason Azzopardi asked the court not to decide the request for an interim measure until Busuttil and Casa are formally admitted to the case as this would otherwise leave them without a remedy.

In a decree handed down today, Mr. Justice Robert Mangion ordered that the request for the postponement of proceedings before the Criminal Court be decided after a decision is made in the request for the intervention in proceedings.