No document has been kept of the conversation or meeting which Prime Minister Robert Abela held with an unidentified female magistrate on the malfunctioning of the Maltese courts, the Commissioner for Information and Data Protection has concluded.

The conclusion follows a call for an investigation by independent candidate Arnold Cassola, who requested the probe after a freedom of information (FOI) request he filed was refused.

Cassola submitted his FOI request following a statement by Abela on January 29 that a magistrate had told him that magistrates were disinclined to dish out strict sentences, as these invariably are overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Abela's admission that he spoke to a judicial member directly and informally, without going through the proper channels, had been widely criticised, including by the Chamber of Advocates.

In his FOI request, Cassola asked for:

• The identity of the magistrate who Abela talked with;
• The date, place and time of the conversation that Abela had with the magistrate;
• The format of the conversation (face-to-face/Whatsapp/social media/email/voice recording/letter/other?); and
• the identity of other sitting magistrates/judges with whom the Prime Minister discussed matters relating to court in private and not in a formal setting. 

The data protection commissioner noted that, in refusing Cassola's FOI request the Information and Data Protection Appeals Tribunal had found that "the documents requested are not in the possession of the Ministry, have never been in the possession of the Ministry and the Ministry doubts their existence.”

In his conclusion, the commissioner said that the Office of the Prime Minister did not have "any article on which the information requested by the applicant was recorded in whatever form to meet the terms of the FOI request at the time of receipt of the FOI request".

The conclusion was based on the fact that the OPM insisted that “the request does not fall within the parameters of Act Cap. 496, there can never be “any article on which information has been recorded in whatever form”. 

However, the OPM failed to submit evidence to show that it held such information or to prove that the request did not fall within the parameters of the law.

Commenting about the decision, Cassola said the country had reached a stage where the Prime Minister could hold unregistered conversations with members of the judiciary on the situation of the law courts in Malta, without leaving any record of such conversations.

“Who can assure us that in the future the Prime Minister will not avail himself of such undocumented conversations with magistrates in order to influence the course of judicial processes,” Cassola asked.