Magistrate denies request to force ministers to exhibit Egrant report copies

Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit has declared that she will not be using extracts, ostensibly quoted from the unpublished Egrant report, in her decision on an urgent request by NGO Repubblika which asked that three government ministers exhibit their copies of the report.

The magistrate noted however that the suspected persons – government ministers Edward Scicluna, Konrad Mizzi and Chris Cardona - had been “extremely evasive in their reply and cast no light on that requested by the plaintiffs”.

“The suspected persons were requested to indicate exactly from where they were quoting and whether this was in the public domain as well as how they came to know this information,” observed the magistrate.

The court, however noted that although it could be a “grave and serious” fact that the suspected persons were aware of extracts of the Egrant inquiry, which was never published, they also, on the other hand had the right to silence and therefore it could not force them to divulge this information.

The court said its only competence in this case was to establish whether a crime had taken place, whether this crime was punishable by three years imprisonment or more and that the subject material still existed.

Beyond this the court cannot deal with other requests, it said, but added that they may be eventually discussed if the court were to order an inquiry.

The court, whilst denying the requests made by Repubblika, declared that it would not be taking cognisance of the extracts quoted when it gives its final decision on the investigation.