An attempt by minister Konrad Mizzi to provisionally block a Panama Papers appeal currently pending before the Criminal Court has failed.

The attempt had taken the rather uncommon form of a request for a provisional measure pending a decision on an interim measure, namely the stay of proceedings before the Criminal Court in relation to a magisterial inquiry against Minister Mizzi and six other high-profile personalities as requested by former Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil following revelations in the Panama Papers.

As proceedings were due to continue before the Criminal Court, now presided over by Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti, after the retirement of Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi, Minister Mizzi had filed a constitutional application on December 7 claiming that his fundamental rights had been breached in the judicial process linked to the Panama Papers.

Yet when that case kicked off on December 20, the Minister’s lawyers had requested the First Hall, Civil Court, presided over by Mr Justice Robert Mangion, to order the proceedings before the Criminal Court to be stayed until the court dealt with a request by Dr Busuttil and MEP David Casa to intervene in the constitutional suit.

A similar request had also been made before the Criminal Court which had, however, apparently not yet pronounced itself in that respect by the time that the constitutional case kicked off.

In a decree delivered on Monday in chambers, Mr Justice Mangion turned down the request to stay proceedings before the Criminal Court, pointing out that a constitutional court could either grant a provisional measure or not.

The court did not agree with the argument put forward by the Minister’s lawyers, who had likened their request to that for a provisional warrant of prohibitory injunction in civil proceedings.

Nor had the applicant so far put forward any evidence to prove that he had exhausted ordinary remedies before the Criminal Court and even if such a fact were proved, this would not necessarily justify the applicant’s claim for such interim measure.

The case continues in January.