Labour kept mum yesterday over an accusation of political bias made against a magistrate by its deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia, while the Chamber of Advocates called the comment unjustified.

Dr Farrugia levelled the accusation on Sunday in reference to Magistrate Audrey Demicoli’s acquittal of a man accused of vote rigging during the 2008 general election. Her decision had just been overturned on appeal.

The Times yesterday made several attempts to get the reaction of Labour leader Joseph Muscat but its questions went unanswered and the party’s spokesman did not return calls or reply to SMSs.

Labour’s spokesman on justice, José Hererra, refused to comment.

A reaction did come from the President of the Chamber of Advocates, Reuben Balzan, who said Dr Farrugia’s comment was unjustified and called on politicians to be more sensible when speaking about members of the judiciary.

“One cannot accuse a member of the judiciary of political bias simply because a decision has been overturned by the appeals court,” Dr Balzan argued.

“This situation occurs many times and that is why the appeals court exists. It’s wrong for a member of the judiciary to be accused of political bias on such an unfounded basis and Dr Farrugia’s comments were out of place.”

When contacted, Magistrate Demicoli said: “No comment is my comment. The code of ethics precludes me from giving any comments in public.”

Magistrate Demicoli’s father, Saviour, used to serve as the PN’s assistant general secretary in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Last week, when asked to comment about the position of Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco after he was named in an Olympics ticketing probe, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said politicians should not comment on individual members of the judiciary.