A request by Opposition leader Adrian Delia to summon the Attorney General as a witness in the Egrant report case was upheld by the civil court on Monday.

The proceedings stem from a constitutional application filed by Dr Delia requesting the court to order the AG to furnish him with a full copy of the report, since it had been made available to the prime minister.

The Egrant inquiry at the Office of the Prime Minister.

In a sitting last week, the court, presided by Mr Justice Robert Mangion, heard submissions on the admissibility and relevance of 23 witnesses to be summoned by Dr Delia.

Among them is the Attorney General himself in his various roles as respondent, chairman of the FIAU, chief prosecutor and attorney to the government.

In a brief sitting on Monday morning, the court upheld Dr Delia’s request to summon the AG to testify, declaring further that it was reserving the right to decide upon the other witnesses once the AG had testified. 

The court said that questions put by Dr Delia's lawyer were to be relevant to the merits of the case. Not all matters deemed to be of public interest were necessarily relevant and admissible as evidence.

Nor would questions, directly or indirectly intended to reveal the contents of the inquiry report, be allowed, the court decreed.

As for Dr Delia’s request to have a copy of correspondence which was allegedly exchanged between the AG and the Office of the Prime Minister, the court reserved its decision for a later stage once Dr Delia has clarified the nature of the correspondence intended in his original request.

The case was adjourned to September 25.

Lawyers Vincent Galea, Joseph Giglio, Errol Cutajar, Bernard Grech, Janice Chetcuti and Andre Portelli are counsel to Dr Delia.

Lawyer Victoria Buttigieg is assisting the AG.