Nexia BT managing partner Brian Tonna has filed a constitutional application claiming that the speaker’s ruling forcing him to testify before parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, which is analysing the Electrogas power station tender, breached his human rights.
In his challenge, filed against the committee chairman Beppe Fenech Adami and Speaker Anglu Farrugia, Tonna claimed that his right to silence had been trampled upon when he subjected to questioning by the committee members following a ruling by the Speaker that he had no option but to appear before the committee.
Tonna appeared before the committee earlier this month and said that he only learnt that secret company 17 Black was owned by Yorgen Fenech after it emerged in the media.
“I was not happy, but I could not do anything about it,” Tonna told parliament’s public accounts committee, where he was answering questions related to a decision to award a power station contract to the Electrogas consortium. During the hearings, he invoked his right to stay silent in reply to some of the questions.
Fenech, who stands accused of complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, was an Electrogas shareholder and director. Tonna contributed to the adjudication process that led to the consortium winning the bid.
Leaked documents have revealed that 17 Black was named as a source of funds for secret Panama companies that Tonna opened for former minister Konrad Mizzi and former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.
Those companies were set up in 2013, with ownership being transferred to Mizzi and Schembri in 2015. Times of Malta and Reuters revealed that Fenech was 17 Black's owner in November 2018.
Tonna, fellow Nexia BT directors Karl Cini and Manuel Castagna and office manager Katrin Bondin Carter currently face charges of money laundering and falsifying documents, among others, in prosecutions sparked by inquiries into alleged corruption by Schembri.
In his constitutional application, which has been assigned to new Judge Neville Camilleri, Tonna claimed that his rights to a fair hearing and to personal liberty had been breached by the speaker’s ruling as well as the PAC hearings.
Through his lawyer Stephen Tonna Lowell, Tonna claimed that he had not yet been informed of the predicate offence committed in ongoing money laundering proceedings so any replies he gives to the PAC could potentially be incriminating.
Tonna said that his right to silence was denied and that the PAC and the Speaker’s ruling breached his right to a fair hearing.
Tonna also challenged the rules for those appearing before the PAC which state that if not observed, he could potentially be jailed.
Mr Justice Camilleri has appointed the case for June 24.
A similar case had been filed by former Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone who had also been forced to testify before the PAC over his alleged involvement in the oil procurement scandal. The court ruled in his favour but the court ruled that criminal proceedings should proceed.