PN says Attorney General must reveal correspondence with PM over Sofia inquiry

Shadow justice minister Karol Aquilina has called on the Attorney General to publicly provide a comprehensive account of the contacts she had with Prime Minister Robert Abela and the justice minister Jonathan Attard.

Aquilina was referring to comments made by the PM upon announcing a public inquiry into the death of 19-year-old Jean Paul Sofia, claiming that Magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia had requested a two-month ‘extension’ to the ongoing magisterial inquiry.

The magisterial inquiry is separate to the public inquiry.

“Attorney General Dr Victoria Buttigieg must provide a comprehensive account of the contacts she had and the information passed on to Robert Abela and Jonathan Attard in relation to the magisterial inquiry into the tragic death of Jean Paul Sofia,” Aquilina said.

“It is unacceptable and entirely deplorable that information in the possession of the Attorney General regarding an ongoing magisterial inquiry is being used by Robert Abela and Jonathan Attard for political purposes. This is a clear abuse of power and a betrayal of the obligations the Attorney General has towards the Maltese and Gozitan people.”

Aquilina insisted that the Labour ministers were deceiving the public after months of strong resistance to the Nationalist Party’s parliamentary motion for a parallel, public inquiry into the construction incident that claimed Sofia’s life.

“If Buttigieg fails to provide a comprehensive account of the contacts she had and the information passed on to Abela and Attard, it would once again confirm that she is being manipulated and controlled by them, violating her constitutional obligations to act independently and not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority,” Aquilina said.

The controversy over the Jean Paul Sofia magisterial inquiry is drawing the inquiring magistrate into a propaganda war being registered on social media.

A vigil for Sofia, the 19-year-old victim of a construction collapse, was held outside Castille Square in Valletta on Monday evening after Abela relented on his refusal for a public inquiry.

On Abela’s U-turn, communicated personally to Sofia’s mother Isabelle Bonnici, news also emerged that the inquiring magistrate had requested a two-month extension on the inquiry.

Government critics, chiefly former Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, accused the Abela administration of misinformation in its bid to pin procedural delays on the Sofia magisterial inquiry on Magistrate Marseann Farrugia. Abela has long criticised delays in this inquiry by way of explaining his refusal to launch a public inquiry into the Sofia construction death.

“Victoria Buttigieg is in collusion with the government to foment the lie on the inquiring magistrate, to induce the magistrate to submit a simple note on the delay as per Article 550 [COCP], so that the government uses it as an excuse,” Azzopardi claimed on Facebook.

The law mandates magistrates to inform the Attorney General of the reason for any delay in the completion of such inquiries every 60 days. At law, the magistrate’s inquiry is presented only to the Attorney General, not to the government. When the inquiry is not completed within two months or 60 days, the magistrate informs the AG with a report within three days of the lapse of that period.

The ‘report’ is procedural and is repeated every month, but critics insist this is not a request to extend the inquiry

The minister for justice, Jonathan Attard, reacted to statements on social media attacking AG Victoria Buttigieg, claiming a judicial writ she filed on the inquiry ‘delay’ was the only way to keep the inquiring magistrate “accountable”.

“This legal procedure has been uses for years, with the AG last year filing 505 such procedural writs in these pending magisterial inquiries. I unequivocally condemn the senseless attacks against the AG.”