[attach id=276276 size="medium"]Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli[/attach]
The Commission for the Administration of Justice has declined to explain why it has not yet reached a decision on the impeachment motion moved against Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco last December.
A spokesman for the commission refused to react, citing secrecy and confidentiality.
“The proceedings before the commission are, as a matter of law, confidential in nature.
“This means that the commission is not at liberty to disclose information about such proceedings,” he said.
Though discussions over the motion against the judge have been going on for months, sources told Times of Malta that “a conclusion is nowhere near”.
Sources said the file had not been discussed for weeks and the motion had been put on the back burner. Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco retires in less than a year, when he turns 65.
According to law, when a motion for impeachment is presented to Parliament, the Commission for the Administration of Justice has to evaluate its admissibility and establish whether there is a prima facie case.
If this is established, its recommendation for impeachment is passed on to the House of Representatives for a final decision. The judge can only be removed by a two-thirds majority of MPs.
The commission’s spokesman said the length of the proceedings were dictated by the hearings’ nature, “by what is at stake for the person being investigated, and by the nature of the evidence, the number and availability of the witnesses demanded by parties, the submissions made and the pleas raised, and the legal and administrative resources at the disposal of the commission”.
The hearings are being chaired by Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri in the absence of President George Abela, who chose to abstain due to a conflict of interest.
The motion for the judge’s impeachment was presented to Parliament after the International Olympic Committee’s ethics commission rapped the judge, in his capacity as chairman of the Malta Olympic Committee.
The judge and the MOC secretary Joe Cassar had become embroiled in an Olympic ticketing controversy, spar-ked by secret footage taken by two undercover reporters working for The Sunday Times of London.