The Nationalist Party said today that the government’s insistence that the impeachment process against Mr Justice Lino Farrucia Sacco had to start again from scratch meant that the judge could not be removed before he retired (in August).

This decision meant that the prime minister had not kept his promise to abide by the decision of the Commission for the Administration of Justice and to move forward with the process.

The government's decision to ignore what had happened in the past, when an impeachment motion was carried over from one legislature to another, was clear evidence that the prime minister and the Labour Party were ready to do whatever they could to save the judge, whose father was a Labour candidate, the PN said.

“The prime minister lacked the political courage to do what is right, by backing in deed and not just with words, the removal of Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco,” the PN said.

Labour had chosen the judge over the proper administration of justice in a blow to those who believed in justice, the PN said.