The judge presiding over Panama Papers appeals has put off the hearing until a related constitutional suit has been concluded.

Simon Busuttil filed a constitutional suit last month, claiming that judge Antonio Mizzi’s refusal to abstain from hearing appeals concerning the case violated his right to a fair hearing.

Mr Justice Mizzi this morning said that the court was putting off hearing the appeals indefinitely, until those constitutional proceedings were exhausted.

The whole saga began in July, when former PN leader Dr Busuttil had called upon a magistrates’ court to investigate revelations emerging from the Panama Papers involving several high profile Maltese figures.

Magistrate Ian Farrugia, presiding over the case, found that the prerequisites for an inquiry into whether money-laundering laws had been breached by government officials had been met.

However, the seven individuals set to be targeted by the inquiry: Prime Minister Joseph Muscat; his chief of staff Keith Schembri; Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi; businessmen Brian Tonna, Karl Cini, Malcolm Scerri and Adrian Hillman, subsequently filed separate appeals calling for the revocation of the decree.

The appeals were assigned to Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi, prompting a challenge Dr Busuttil on the grounds that the judge’s wife, Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi, had expressed her views on the Panama Papers scandal.

Mr Justice Mizzi refused to accept the challenge, leading to Dr Busuttil's constitutional suit and this morning's decision to put off hearings until that was concluded. 

Prior to this pronouncement, lawyer Pawlu Lia argued that the constitutional application filed by Dr Busuttil would be prejudicial to his client’s interests. 

This prompted his counterpart, lawyer and PN MP Jason Azzopardi to say that this amounted to an admission that the Labour Party had an interest in Mr Justice Mizzi continuing to preside over the appeals.

The first hearing in the constitutional case is scheduled for tomorrow.