The proverbial has hit the fan. The European Parliament report of the MEPs’ investigation following Daphne Caruana Galizia’s political assassination that was published a few days ago, included one highly significant nugget of information. Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri clarified that ‘reasonable suspicion’ was not needed as a minimum criterion for the police to start a criminal investigation. This could be started simply with information, in any form, of a crime being brought to their attention. Yet in his submissions to the MEPs, Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar asserted the exact opposite.

What the Chief Justice said needs to be taken in the context of his warning a few months ago about the possible deterioration of the rule of law because of lack of action by the police. He has now removed any shadow of doubt of his intended meaning. For the first time, the Chief Justice directly and publicly contradicted the Police Commissioner.

The Chief Justice’s clarification may be obvious for those in legal circles, but for the rest of us it was the first official confirmation of what we had suspected all along, and what Jonathan Ferris all but spelled out: that Cutajar is not simply incompetent.

There is a limit to how pig-headedly dim-witted anyone, especially a senior police officer, least of all a police commissioner, can possibly be. Cutajar’s insistence that he did not have sufficient concrete evidence to initiate an inquiry on the Panama affair could not have been just an abysmal error of judgement.

When his flat-out refusal to initiate this criminal investigation is lined up with the tooth-and-nail fight that Muscat and his coterie are putting up to keep the courts from starting an inquiry into this same information – an inquiry which, they claim, would clear them – then it all makes sense.

The Chief Justice’s clarification leaves no reasonable doubt: Commissioner Cutajar has been lying. In terms of the Police Act, he would be guilty of “wilfully or negligently (making a) false, misleading or inaccurate statement”. The Act says that for the Prime Minister to remove a police officer (including the Commissioner), he requires a recommendation from the Public Service Commission (PSC), which has the power and duty to investigate serious offences by public officers.

So the focus should now turn on the PSC, yet another constitutional guardian that is supposed to work without fear or favour. Now that the Chief Justice, no less, has spoken so publicly, will it finally initiate its inquiry on the fitness for purpose of Police Commissioner Cutajar to consider whether “he should in the public interest no longer serve as a member of the Force”?

Or will it go down the road of the FIAU, the Attorney General’s Office, the Police Force and the MFSA, whose national and international reputations now lie in tatters? Will it stand up to be counted, or will it join the despicable list of public service cowards who have betrayed the trust of their country out of fear, lucre or both?

Will the PSC finally initiate its inquiry on the fitness for purpose of Police Commissioner Cutajar?

12 naughty questions for 2018

It’s time again for my 12 new-year questions, for which I would dearly love to get an answer.

Considering the number of ħniżrijiet (obscenities) that Police Commissioner Cutajar has closed both eyes to in 2017, his ‘Year of Success’, should he not upgrade in 2018 from a fenkata to a majjalata?

What price is Attorney General Peter Grech willing to pay to be made a judge, or perhaps even win the race for new Chief Justice?

Will Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi be forgiven because they, too, work long hours?

Which party will be the first to promise to hand over Comino for the exclusive entertainment of hunters and trappers?

Which Tagħna Lkoll company will be the first to start offering free services surreptitiously to the PN, hoping to continue cashing in on any future change of government?

Why does Beppe Fenech Adami need a peacock in his ODZ garden when he can just invite Adrian Delia?

When will Marlene Farrugia allow Godfrey to finish a whole sentence?

Can Minister Ian Borg please build me my very own bypass to bypass the Birkirkara Bypass so I can get to work on time? You know, like the one he is building at Attard?

Will the Chinese do a Vitals and sell off Malta’s power infrastructure for a quick profit?

Will the police check the FIAU telephone logs to see if Keith Schembri did phone about Pilatus Bank, or have these logs already been deleted?

After Pilatus and Henley & Partners, which government buddy will be next to try and SLAPP the free press to silence?

And finally: will 2018 see the full publication of all the magisterial inquiry reports about Panama, Pilatus and Egrant? And will they be more credible than the one for the 2015 Paqpaqli għall-Istrina car crash?