Proposals to limit the rights of any person to trigger a magisterial inquiry and related plans to protect civil servants from criminal liability fatally undermine the rule of law, a former chief justice has warned.
Joseph Said Pullicino, who served as chief justice between 1995 and 2002, has added his voice to a growing list of those concerned about the proposed changes.
Prime Minister Robert Abela has claimed the proposals, which make it harder for a normal person to trigger a magisterial inquiry, will cut down on inquiries being used as a “tool for persecution”.
The former chief justice warned that, if approved, the proposals would constitute an erosion of the right of citizens to keep public administrators accountable for their criminal actions and a threat to the rule of law.
Said Pullicino said he shares and fully supports the concerns raised by Silvio Camilleri, also a former chief justice and a former attorney general. Camilleri warned that the proposals only serve to shield politicians and their persons of trust from investigation.
“I cannot but censure those who, in parliament and elsewhere, rather than engaging in constructive debate to address the serious concerns raised by the bill, choose to impute ulterior motives and political prejudice to those public spirited, courageous persons who raise them.”
Said Pullicino said such concerns are further compounded by recent declarations by the prime minister that the government intends to move a new bill to ensure senior public servants would be protected from being subject to unjust investigations into their conduct when carrying out administrative duties.
“The details of this bill are not known. However, the mere fact that the government has made its intention known within the context of this ongoing debate raises grave alarm bells.
“It strengthens the conviction that the government is intent on setting up a firewall against any effective judicial review of its administrative actions.”
Said Pullicino, a former ombudsman, said these developments need to be closely monitored and timely action taken to forestall them.
“They threaten the very foundations of our democracy and fatally undermine the rule of law.”
A magisterial inquiry into the hospitals Vitals hospitals deal last year recommended charges be issued against both politicians and public servants.
Said Pullicino said magisterial and other inquiries into allegations of corruption and abuse of power have conclusively shown that criminal offences might not have happened were it not for the active or passive involvement of senior public officers or persons of trust.
The ex-chief justice said it is even more worrying that the government is seeking to justify the need to have the draft law approved with urgency by claiming that ministers and senior public servants who have been caught up in magisterial inquiries initiated by private persons are unjustly suffering grave prejudice.
He said the government had crossed a red line by declaring people suspected of crimes as being innocent. “Such categorical statements by persons in authority on the innocence or guilt of a person accused or suspected of having committed an offence could be held to prejudice his/her right to a fair trial.
“Victims of crime too are entitled to be assured that the person accused of committing it is judged fairly and that nothing is done to vitiate the judicial process. Only thus will justice be rightly served.”
Former European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello also weighed in on the proposals.
Bonello said the bill is frontally offensive to the rule of law, to good governance, to the administration of justice and can also breach the fundamental human rights of victims of crime.
“You may say that I support without any reservations all the criticism raised by Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, by the Chamber of Advocates, by the former dean of the faculty of laws, Kevin Aquilina, and other authorities of undoubted wisdom and integrity,” Bonello said.