A final decision is expected to be taken next week on how Parliament will proceed on the new motion to impeach Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco.
It will be taken within Parliament’s House Business Committee, which is scheduled to meet on February 19.
This follows a decision by the Commission for the Administration of Justice that its recommendation for Parliament to move forward on the previous motion still stood in relation to the new one.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday said the government had taken the Commission’s decision “into account” and would discuss the way forward within the committee.
Last Monday, the Speaker of the House, Anġlu Farrugia, revealed the contents of an exchange of letters on the Farrugia Sacco issue with President George Abela, who chairs the commission.
The correspondence reveals that the judiciary’s watchdog twice informed the Speaker its recommendation for the impeachment process to move ahead had not changed, despite his ruling declaring the original motion ‘dead’ and the presentation of a new one by the Prime Minister.
After receiving a first letter informing him of this, the Speaker wrote back to the commission saying his first letter has possibly been “misunderstood” and asking the commission for a “new report” on the motion.
In reply, President Abela informed Dr Farrugia that after taking note of his second letter, the commission’s “definitive decision” was that its original report finding prima facie evidence of misbehaviour by the judge “still stands and should be applicable to the new motion”.
As the exchange between the Speaker and the President was under way, Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco’s lawyers stepped in to suggest that once a new motion had been submitted, the judge’s fundamental rights must be fully respected.
“This means that it is fundamental that this motion be examined and studied by a commission that has not already expressed itself on many aspects,” Dr Farrugia Sacco’s lawyers argued.
However, the Speaker replied that his ruling “is what it is” and the other issues that were mentioned should be addressed to the commission.
Following the commission’s original recommendation last month that Parliament should move ahead with the impeachment – first moved by then prime minister Lawrence Gonzi in 2012 – the Speaker ruled that the motion was ‘dead’.
This was based on legal advice that a motion cannot be carried over from one legislature to another, particularly when the member presenting it was no longer a member of the House.
The same legal advice was given to government MPs on the House Business Committee.
Soon after this decision, Dr Muscat presented a new motion, which the Speaker then passed on to the commission for its recommendation.
The Opposition had accused the government of using procedure to make sure that Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco retires before the impeachment procedure came to an end.
He is expected to retire in August upon his 65th birthday.
Before the election, Dr Muscat had said that his government would follow the commission’s recommendation.