Former judge Toni Abela says he wanted to resign after Daphne Caruana Galizia murder

Former judge Toni Abela said that the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia made him want to resign.

In an interview on TVM’s Xtra, Abela reflected on his career as a politician, a lawyer and a judge. He goes back to his childhood before graduating and recounts controversies such as his grilling for his post in the European Court of Auditors and his time as deputy leader working with Joseph Muscat. 

On the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Abela said that at the time he believed that “there’s no justice in Malta. For her to die in that way, there must be no justice in Malta.” 

He explained that he had gone to the Chief Justice at the time and shared with him his wish to resign. Abela said that he was scared that some people he used to be close to could be involved in the murder, but insisted that he wasn’t pointing any fingers.

On his political history, Abela explained that he had grown up in a heavily politically affiliated household, with his grandmother having a big admiration for Dom Mintoff. Abela spoke about his upbringing in the Marsa-Ħamrun area, an area which was crawling with poverty at the time, but despite this, residents showed solidarity with one another.

“I’ve always attended state school, from primary, to the lyceum, sixth form and university,” he said. Abela credited his interest in becoming a lawyer to the educators that had met along his educational journey which sowed in him the interest for research and analysis. 

Albeit, this was not his original plan. He said that he had wanted to be a priest and had even joined the MSSP, where he spent a year and a half in Gozo. It was during this time where Abela had a disagreement with one of his superiors which led to him packing his bags and heading back to Malta.

Looking back, he retold his encounter with former Minister of Justice Ġuże’ Cassar who encouraged him to become a lawyer. He spoke highly of Cassar and even reminisced about the close relationship the two had.

Abela said that being a supporter of the PL was “easy for him” as this was the environment he was brought up in. He said that during his upbringing, he was “ideologically infatuated” and read about all Marxist ideologies and as a result of this he wasn’t a supporter of PL but a supporter of the ideology.

“I regret nothing,” Abela said about his time with PL and Alternativa Demokratika (AD) as he recalled the tough times that he and Wenzu Mintoff went through. He said that he doesn’t regret anything, but rather is happy that the Labour Party reformed itself after the pair were kicked out of the party in 1989.

In 1989, Abela co-founded AD, and in 1998, when the party had a worse result than before Abela had appealed to his colleagues to turn AD into a pressure group once again, rather than a political party. 

Abela then returned to the PL and was elected deputy leader of the party. 

After the first years of Joseph Muscat’s government, Abela had the opportunity to move on to the European Court of Auditors where he failed the grilling. He recalled the grilling which he believed was unfair as it was more focused on political questions rather than what he had studied, which was relevant to the position.

He clarified that he had nothing to do with the allegations that the party was facing following the Panama Papers episode, and in fact as he had returned from Brussels, Konrad Mizzi had taken his post as deputy leader. 

On his future, Abela was ambiguous and said that his aim was to improve the lives of those around him. 

When specifically asked if he would make a return to the political world, he said “you can’t exclude anything, but it’s very improbable.”