The judiciary watchdog’s recommendation that Parliament should proceed with the motion to impeach Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco still holds, the Speaker of the House has been informed.
In a letter to Speaker Anġlu Farrugia, President George Abela, who presides over the Commission for the Administration of Justice, said the decision communicated to Parliament on the 2012 motion to impeach the judge still applied to the motion that has replaced it.
Correspondence between Dr Farrugia and the commission was yesterday tabled in Parliament.
In its report on the original motion, the Commission had said that while the judge, as president of the Malta Olympic Committee, was not involved in any irregularities in the sale of tickets for the Olympic Games, there was a prima facie case of misbehaviour in his having stayed on in the post: he had attracted disrespect for the judiciary even though he had been previously urged by the commission to step down.
However, the Speaker last week ruled that the motion, presented by then Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi in a different session of Parliament, was no longer valid.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat then presented a new impeachment motion to Opposition protests that this would mean a repeat of the whole process and it would not be completed before the judge retires in August.
Opposition Deputy Leader Mario de Marco yesterday asked if the commission’s decision meant that the government would be pushing the new motion with urgency.
The Speaker said the House Business Committee would discuss the matter at its next meeting.
In a later statement the PN said it was expecting Parliament to debate the new motion “immediately”.
In a letter dated January 29, the Speaker had given President Abela notice of the new motion so that the commission would investigate and give feedback.
The commission replied saying it had nothing to add to its report.
The next day the Clerk of the House wrote back saying the extent of the Speaker’s definitive ruling might have been misunderstood. That ruling had held that the old motion was “definitely dead”. The new motion was therefore distinct and separate from the old one, and the commission was required to come up with a new report on the new motion. However, the commission’s secretary wrote back with the commission’s “definitive decision” on February 7. The Speaker has also received a letter from the judge’s legal team saying the new motion should take its normal course without any violation of the judge’s fundamental rights. The new motion should be examined and studied by “a commission that has not already pronounced itself on the aspects in the motion”.
Dr Farrugia said he had replied referring the legal team to the commission.