The Commission for the Administration of Justice has written to the Speaker of the House of Representatives saying that the decision it had taken in the impeachment motion filed in 2012 against Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco still applied to the impeachment motion presented last week by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

The Speaker last week had ruled that the 2012 motion presented by then Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was no longer valid since there was a new session of parliament and Dr Gonzi was no longer a member of the House.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had then presented a new impeachment motion but the Opposition had protested that this would mean a repeat of the whole process, which would not be completed before the judge retired this August.

In its original report, now reconfirmed, the Commission said that while the judge, as president of the Malta Olympic Committee, was not involved in any irregularities in the sale of tickets for the Olympic Games, there was a prima facie case of misbehaviour in his having stayed on at the post and having attracted disrespect for the judiciary as a whole even though he had been previously urged by the Commission itself to step down.

Today's letter by the Justice Commission was signed by President George Abela.

Deputy Opposition Leader Mario de Marco asked if the matter would now proceed quickly in the House.

The Speaker said the issue would be discussed at a meeting of the House Business Committee.

JUDGE'S LETTER

The Speaker also distributed to all MPs a copy of a letter from the judge’s legal team, in which they said that the new motion should take its normal course without any violation of the judge’s fundamental rights.

The legal team – Judge Emeritus Philip Sciberras and lawyers David Farrugia Sacco, Alex Sciberras and Steven Farrugia Sacco – said that in view of the identical content of the two motions, the new one should be examined and studied by “a commission that has not already pronounced itself on the aspects in the motion”.

PN CALLS FOR URGENCY

In a statement, the PN said that now that the Justice Commission had reconfirmed its decision, it expected an urgent debate in Parliament.

It urged the government not to further delay the process.

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