Last minute change to inquiry bill means Camilleri appeals thrown out: Azzopardi

A government’s last-minute amendment to the magisterial inquiry bill was done to halt Jason Azzopardi’s requests to investigate the Gozo minister, the lawyer and ex-PN MP claimed on Thursday.

Jason Azzopardi, whose three requests to investigate minister Clint Camilleri were thrown out by a magistrate last month, has appealed all decisions.

But Azzopardi believes that all of his appeals will now be thrown out following the government’s eleventh-hour amendment that saw a cut-off point for private requests moved forward.

“Two days ago, the mafia in Government amended its own bill to ensure that the sentence would not be handed down,” Azzopardi said on Thursday.

Originally, the first drafts of the inquiry reform said that courts would throw out any citizen-filed investigation requests made before January 1, provided no final decision had been reached.

But on Tuesday - the day before parliament passed the controversial bill - the government’s members of the consideration of bills committee moved the cut-off point forward to any time before the bill becomes law.

The House of Representatives passed the legislation on Wednesday amidst a protest organised by Repubblika on the doorstep of parliament.

On Thursday, Azzopardi said the amendment was specifically made to stop his appeals from being heard.

“The amendment passed two days ago by the mafia in Government (an amendment to its own bill) had the sole purpose of killing these three appeals,” Azzopardi said.

Of Azzopardi’s three appeals, one - over jobs and mooring spots at the Mġarr harbour allegedly being handed out fraudulently - held its first hearing last week.

Azzopardi appealed a court’s decision to turn down requests for a probe into Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, claiming that a different magistrate to the one handling the case authored the rejection.

In his appeal, Azzopardi argued that a court decree rejecting his request for a probe into Camilleri about an Olympic-sized pool was rejected by Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech and not Magistrate Brigitte Sultana, who was supposed to be handling the request.

In support of his claim, Azzopardi wrote that the “properties” of the court decree document showed that Frendo Dimech was its author. An IT professional, who was consulted, confirmed the assertion.

The two other appeals have still not been heard in court.

"These two appeals can neither be heard nor decided,” following the amendment passed two days ago by the government, Azzopardi said.