Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi was making use of his position as a member of Parliament to manipulate an issue in which he had a personal interest, Labour MP Robert Abela said on Wednesday.
Speaking in Parliament, Dr Abela referred to remarks made by Dr Azzopardi on Monday in which the latter alleged that intelligence services were being used to "protect criminals".
Dr Azzopardi, who is also representing the Caruana Galizia family in proceedings against three men accused of murdering journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, had asked how Malta's Security Service had not gotten wind of the murder plot despite having tapped one of the suspects' phones.
He also alleged that a police sergeant had tipped off the three men accused of murdering Ms Caruana Galizia and was then transferred to a different unit without punishment.
The allegations have been denied by the Security Services and investigator Keith Arnaud.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Dr Abela challenged Dr Azzopardi to repeat his allegations under oath, before the magistrate presiding over the compilation of evidence.
“This is a game, and it is a dangerous game,” he said, alluding to an interest in spinning the case for political reasons which risked undermining a serious judicial process - the compilation of evidence against the accused - despite the fact that this process was being led by a well-respected magistrate and prosecuting inspector.
Dr Azzopardi had already compromised the case once before, he argued, since a sealed video showing the departure of the vessel belonging to the accused, and from which the bomb had allegedly been triggered, from the Grand Harbour had appeared on international media shortly after he had requested it from the prosecution.
The only function served by the publication of this video would be to throw a lifeline to the accused’s defence team, who could argue that it amounted to a contamination of the investigation.
In such cases, he said, one would expect an attorney in his position to work in lockstep with the prosecution to get to the truth, but prosecuting inspector Keith Arnaud - who had been praised by Dr Azzopardi on many occasions - had in this case been forced to issue two statements, virtually without precedent, to deny the grave accusations levelled by Dr Azzopardi, accusing him of manipulating information for personal political gain at the risk of tainting the hard work that had been carried out thereto.
Dr Abela also questioned the extent to which the family of the deceased wished to get to the truth, asking why they persisted in their refusal to hand over a key piece of evidence - Ms Caruana Galizia’s laptop - to the inquiring magistrate, if they did not trust the police.
He asked why the magistrate had not ordered the surrender of the device, as any magistrate would do in any case where the victim were not a public figure.
Casting doubts on Dr Azzopardi’s credibility, Dr Abela said that if Dr Azzopardi was not willing to repeat his allegations to the magistrate, he should retract them and “bear responsibility” for them.