The director of Construct Furniture has filed an application asking the courts to order the Police Commissioner to investigate who informed The Sunday Times of Malta that they would be facing criminal charges.

Last Sunday, the newspaper had reported that a magisterial inquiry into the death of a 17-year-old employee of Construct Furniture had concluded that company director John Agius should face criminal charges.

The Sunday Times of Malta source had also revealed that Mr Agius's daughter, Amanda Cefai, and her husband James - a foreman at the company - would face the same criminal charges.

In their application filed before Magistrate Joe Mifsud, Mr Agius, Ms Cefai and Mr Cefai argued that the conclusions were published in the media before they themselves had obtained a copy of the inquiry and technically before criminal proceedings had been initiated. This was therefore tantamount to abuse. Apart from prejudicing the defendants, the story could potentially create an obstacle to these proceedings to their detriment, they argued.

"The fact that part of the magisterial inquiry ended up published in a Sunday newspaper creates serious concerns regarding who, from the interested parties, could have harboured the interest to - even at this point - taint the defendants," the court application states.

The defendants also said they disagreed with the inquiry's conclusions for a number of reasons, but would contest these at the opportune moment.

The defendants asked the court to conduct an investigation and to take the necessary steps regarding whoever passed the information to The Sunday Times of Malta, including ordering the Police Commissioner to investigate how the inquiry or parts of it were leaked to the newspaper.

Lawyers Veronique Dalli and Edward Gatt signed the application.