The two judges who were on Sunday charged with accepting bribes in return for reducing a drug trafficker's jail term yesterday morning wrote to the President saying they would like to refrain from carrying out their duties.

Chief Justice Noel Arrigo and Mr Justice Patrick Vella both made it clear they were not resigning from their posts.

In a separate development, a motion for the impeachment of the judges, signed by the prime minister and by the leader of the opposition, was presented to the Speaker of the House of Representatives last night.

In his letter to Guido de Marco, as the President and as chairman of the Commission for the Administration of Justice, Chief Justice Arrigo wrote:

"I feel that in view of recent events it would not be prudent, and neither would it be in the interest of the proper and transparent administration of justice, to continue to carry out the functions of my post.

"I therefore ask you to act according to Article 98 of the Constitution of Malta.

"Before I consider my position further within the context of the procedures that have been instituted against me, and as I am contesting these procedures, I feel that adding anything to the above could be prejudicial in my regard. At this stage, therefore, this communication is not to be considered as tendering my resignation."

Section 98 of the constitution lays down that if the office of the chief justice is vacant or if the chief justice is unable to perform his duties for any reason, the prime minister would advise the President to appoint one of the other judges in the superior court to carry out those duties until a chief justice is appointed or until the chief justice could resume his duties.

Mr Justice Vella wrote:

"I humbly feel that in the circumstances it would be prudent not to be assigned work as a judge, even in best interests of the proper administration of justice.

"I therefore ask you to consider that I not be assigned any work in connection with my post.

"I want to make it clear that this request is a temporary measure, and it should not in any way be interpreted that I am resigning from my post of judge. It is without prejudice to the proceedings in question."

The letters were published by the Department of Information.

The intention behind the letters is understood to be to ward off criticism of the judges still retaining their position when charges had been pressed against them.

"Prudence dictates that it is the step that needs to be taken. Technically both are still judges on the bench and are presumed innocent," sources close to the judges said.

The motion for impeachment, also released by the Department of Information last night, asks the President to remove Chief Justice Arrigo and Mr Justice Vella from their office in the superior courts, as provided by Article 97 (2) of the constitution which says that this can only be done by a two-thirds majority in parliament, and because of the proven incapacity of a judge to fulfil the function of his office or because of proven misbehaviour.

The motion states that, as resulted from separate statements they made to the Police Commissioner, the judges spoke to third persons with a view to reducing the jail term of Mario Camilleri through a ruling in the Court of Criminal Appeal.

These "proven facts constituted misbehaviour", the motion says.

The motion will now be passed on to President Guido de Marco by the Speaker. The President, who also chairs the Commission for the Administration of Justice, will convene meetings to discuss the case.

The prime minister or the police commissioner will present the commission with evidence saying why they believe the judges should be impeached.

If the commission agrees that there is a case for impeachment, it will then inform parliament to start the proceedings.

The commission is made up of Prof. de Marco; the Chief Justice is the vice-president while the members are Mr Justice Frank Camilleri, Mr Justice Vincent Degaetano, magistrates Silvio Meli and Dennis Montebello, retired judge Victor Caruana Colombo, Dr Joe Micallef Stafrace, Dr Joe Azzopardi, and Attorney General Anthony Borg Barthet.

Chief Justice Arrigo and Mr Justice Vella were arraigned on Sunday afternoon and charged with accepting bribes and with revealing official secrets in relation to a sentence handed down by the Court of Criminal Appeal against Mario Camilleri on July 5. The offences were aggravated by the fact that they were public officers duty bound to prevent the crime.

Both judges pleaded not guilty.

The case was first made public by the prime minister at a news conference last Thursday.

Police investigations into the case are continuing. In court on Monday, Police Commissioner John Rizzo said a person had offered a gift to Chief Justice Arrigo, which he had refused, but then a second person had made an offer which the chief justice accepted.

However, Mr Rizzo did not reveal plans of possible additional arraignments.

On Saturday, the government announced it had started proceedings to impeach the two judges after it resulted there was enough proof of wrong-doing according to the constitution.

Last year, the government was unsuccessful in trying to impeach Mr Justice Anton Depasquale when the impeachment motion did not garner the required two-thirds majority in parliament.

The motion, moved by the prime minister, had asked the President to remove Mr Justice Depasquale because he had 'abandoned' his duties.