The judiciary watchdog has been asked to investigate Magistrate Carol Peralta who yesterday threw a party in his court hall and then ordered the arrest of the journalist who tried to report on it.

The incident drew the condemnation of the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Justice Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici. Dr Bonnici said he “completely disapproved” of Magistrate Peralta’s behaviour and was very saddened by what had happened.

Dr Muscat tweeted: “Following arrest of the Times of Malta rep with concern. Gov will immediately ask Justice Commission to investigate. Proof reform necessary”.

In a statement, the government said Magistrate Peralta’s alleged behaviour was unacceptable and obscured the good work done by the judiciary.

The statement also announced that Dr Bonnici had written formally to the President as chairman of the Commission for the Administration of Justice, asking for an “urgent investigation” of the magistrate’s behaviour.

In his letter to the President, which was released to the press, Dr Bonnici said the news that a party had been held in a courtroom raised serious concerns about the behaviour of a member of the judiciary and about the way courtrooms were used for purposes extraneous to the administration of justice.

The party in the court hall, where sittings are normally held, kicked off shortly after noon. A laptop computer was playing Christmas music and some of the guests were drinking and smoking openly, despite the court house being marked as a no smoking area.

Times of Malta reporter Ivan Martin arrived at the scene when the party was winding down, shortly before 4pm, and attempted to take a picture of the event through the court room port hole but was stopped.

At this point, a court usher tapped the reporter on the shoulder and warned him that he was under “court arrest” and escorted him into the hall.

The magistrate emerged from his chambers, holding a drink and, with slurred speech he hurled insults, describing the journalist as “scum” and a “parasite of society”.

Swirling a drink in his hand and smoking a cigarette, he asked for the reporter’s name and details, which were given to him, and then asked for the reporter’s phone, which was not handed over. He then ordered his arrest and the police were called in.

Officers arrived at the scene and took Mr Martin to the Valletta police station but released him some three hours later, saying that at that stage there was no room for further action.

The magistrate kept on smoking openly in the corridors of the court even while the police asked him why he had demanded the reporter’s arrest.

The court hall bore the signs of having hosted a party, with cigarette butts on the floor and alcohol spilled on the table usually used by defence lawyers. At one point, one of the police officers present asked the magistrate whether there had been an altercation because the room looked in such disarray.

The Nationalist Party and Alternattiva Demokratika said they were concerned that a reporter had been arrested on orders of a member of the judiciary while carrying out his duties.

Magistrate Peralta is no newcomer to controversy. In October he remarked, while handing down a suspended jail term to a teacher from Georgia who pleaded guilty to possessing a stolen iPad and two mobile phones, that crimes of the sort were especially serious because they were committed by foreigners.

A year earlier, he let off with a conditional discharge a Mellieħa man who had run over an Australian with his car, after considering that the victim had insulted the perpetrator by calling him “gay”.

However, his most serious brush with controversy came in the early 1990s, shortly after he was appointed, when a motion was moved to impeach him over allegations that he was a freemason. Eventually, the motion was withdrawn after he made a declaration saying that he had acted as a lawyer for a Maltese freemason’s lodge before being appointed to the bench but was not actually a member.

mmicallef@timesofmalta.com