It is every citizen’s duty to take a stand against the abuse of power and corruption, according to retired European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello.

Dr Bonello was replying to questions from the Times of Malta after Family Minister Michael Farrugia criticised his attendance to last Sunday’s anti-corruption protest.

Dr Farrugia said it was “unacceptable” for Dr Bonello to be present at a “political rally” in the wake of the Panama Papers, which revealed secret companies held by the Prime Minister’s most trusted men – Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Dr Bonello did not mince words. “I do not believe it is the right, but the duty, in a democracy, for every citizen to take a stand against abuse of power and corruption”.

Dr Bonello shot down the minister, who said that because the ex-ECHR judge chaired the Drug Offenders Rehabilitation Board and was a consultant for Heritage Malta, he should not have added his voice to the thousands who attended the PN’s rally last Sunday.

“How many judges attend political protests?” the minister asked on Monday’s edition of Reporter.

Dr Bonello stood his ground. “I’m a private person. I’m not, and have never been, a judge, in Malta. I don’t exercise, and have never exercised, judicial functions for Maltese society. I’m not even an ex-judge. I was, but no longer am, a judge abroad.

“My obligations to my former, foreign, non-Maltese, judicial status I know well and observe scrupulously,” he said.