Former FIAU official Jonathan Ferris will take legal action to contest the decision not to grant him whistleblower protection, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.
The External Whistleblower Unit has said Mr Ferris’s request would not be accepted because he had “failed to adhere to the dispositions of Protection of the Whistleblower Act”.
The decision was communicated when the authorities finally replied to a judicial protest he had filed against unit head Philip Massa, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici and the Attorney General.
Mr Ferris’s protest said they had repeatedly moved the goalposts to derail his application for whistleblower protection.
Both Dr Muscat and Dr Bonnici have denied being the appropriate defendants in the matter.
His lawyers expressed polite disdain for the government’s stonewalling tactics
Mr Ferris’s legal team vowed yesterday to fight on, expressing “polite disdain” for the government’s “repetition of their stonewalling tactics”.
Mr Ferris claims he has information about corruption, abuse of power and money laundering over the last few years, still taking place and reaching “the very top”.
He claims he was fired from the Financial Intelligence and Analysis Unit (FIAU) because he dug too deep into government corruption allegations in the course of his investigations.
He says the termination of his employment was illegal, abusive and the result of ministerial interference. He is represented by lawyers Jason Azzopardi, Roselyn Borg and Andrew Borg Cardona.
READ: FIAU boss told me not take report to Egrant magistrate, Ferris claims
“Mr Ferris will not be stopping here,” they promised.
“We will contest the legal basis of this decision. It shows how this government, when it comes to the crunch, adopts a two weights and two measures approach,” said Dr Azzopardi. He invited people to compare this decision to the treatment of the whistleblower who came forward with information about the husband of former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono.
“We shall be filing a court case showing why this decision is vitiated in fact and in law.”
Without whistleblower protection, Mr Ferris could face a five-year jail term and a €100,000 fine for blowing the whistle on any corruption he may have witnessed during his time at the FIAU. The law is very stringent about revealing any information about money laundering or investigations into money laundering.
Mr Ferris says he left the police force, where he worked before being engaged by the FIAU, with regret due to the government’s “direct interference” in his work.
Correction 2.15pm: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Mr Ferris had met with MEPs and handed them a report concerning Mr Mizzi.