Speaker turns down motion for urgent debate on calls for Jean Paul Sofia public inquiry

Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia turns down an Opposition motion to hold a parliamentary discussion on requests by Jean Paul Sofia’s mother for a public inquiry into her son’s death

Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia has turned down an Opposition motion to hold a parliamentary discussion on requests by Jean Paul Sofia’s mother for a public inquiry into her son’s death.

As parliament resumed after Easter recess, Nationalist leader Bernard Grech filed a motion requesting the House is adjourned so that calls for a public inquiry into Sofia’s death are debated.

Isabelle Bonnici, Jean Paul Sofia’s mother, handed out a letter to MPs from both sides of the House pleading for an inquiry into her son’s death. She also handed out a memorial card of her son together with the letter.

Sofia was killed in a construction site accident last December, after a three-storey building he was working at collapsed during construction works. Five men - three Albanian, a Maltese and a Bosnian were rescued by members of the Civil Protection Department.

Magistrate Marseann Farrugia is conducting an inquiry into the incident. Despite multiple calls for a public inquiry, Prime Minister Robert Abela has dismissed the requests, insisting the ongoing magisterial inquiry should be allowed to end.

Announcing his decision, after the parliamentary sitting was suspended from more than an hour, the Speaker said the request did not meet the prerequisites for today’s sitting to be adjourned.

The Speaker said that in considering the motion, when a request was filed under this permanent order, it always looked at whether the matter is defined, of public interest, and urgent.  He said that the matter at hand satisfied the former two – that it was defined and of public interest.

However, the urgency aspect is also important, he said, noting that this means that it must be urgent enough for a debate to be held in that moment, otherwise it would be too late.

Farrugia also cited previous rulings in declaring that a debate could compromise ongoing investigations, and in turn disrupt the judicial process of the ongoing magisterial inquiry.

He also said there had been no new developments in the case to render the matter urgent enough for the sitting to be suspended.

Reacting to Grech’s motion, government Whip Andy Ellul said while his side of the House shows “compassion” to Jean Paul Sofia’s mother, the Opposition leader had “every right” to put forward a motion during the Opposition’s allotted time in Parliament but chose not to do so.