Standards czar partially halts probe into Judge Mintoff's letter about Abela

The Standards Commissioner has said he cannot look into allegations of misconduct by Robert Abela that took place before he was elected prime minister, because he is tied by the statute of limitations. 

However, commissioner Joseph Azzopardi said he will continue to investigate allegations made by Judge Lawrence (Wenzu) Mintoff about Abela that date back to more recent periods. 

Earlier this year, Times of Malta revealed that Judge Mintoff had sent a bombshell letter to Abela's cabinet containing a series of allegations made under oath against the prime minister.

The letter was sent in the midst of government deliberations to appoint a new chief justice. 

Mintoff alleged that Abela had discussed the post with him and made it clear he intended to appoint a new chief justice based on partisan considerations. 

The judge claimed that Abela had subsequently texted him over WhatsApp to make it he had no chance of being the government's nominee. 

The judge's five-page letter then cited incidents involving the judge and prime minister dating back some years, which the judge alleged were the true reason he was being overlooked for the chief justice post.

He claimed that Abela, before he was MP, had sought to bully one of the judge's court officials to bump up court fees owed to him as a lawyer in the high-profile Paqpaq Ghall Istrina case. 

Abela had also abused of his position as an MP to ask parliamentary questions about the case and compensation owed by the state, the judge alleged. 

Abela was an MP between 2017 and 2020.

Following the judge's claims, rule-of-law NGO Repubblika and Momentum separately asked the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life to investigate the judge's allegations about the prime minister.

Abela, who denied the judge's allegations, subsequently said he had written to the commissioner to lift the statute of limitations on such investigations. 

By law, parliament's standards commissioner can only investigate issues that took place up to one year before the complaint is filed. 

Repubblika publishes decision

In a preliminary decision which Repubblika published on Friday despite the commissioner's decision not to do so, standards commissioner and judge emeritus Joseph Azzopardi made it clear that Abela's offer to waive the statute of limitations held no legal weight.

The law precluded him from investigating issues dating back years, he said. 

However, the commissioner said he would continue to investigate allegations falling within the one-year period from the filing of the complaint. 

He described his decision as a preliminary one, because he intended to continue investigating the other allegations, and said he would not be publishing it for now due to its preliminary nature. 

Repubblika said it was publishing the report in full as it believes the public has a right to know about this decision immediately.

In a statement, the NGO said the commissioner had "ruled unequivocally that it was not legally possible to disregard the statutory limitation period".

Abela was well aware of this, Repubblika charged, and had only offered to waive the statute as a form of political theatre. 

His intention was "to create the impression that he had no objection to a full investigation, while knowing that the law would in any event prevent it.

"This was a display of contempt for the public and for the process itself," Repubblika said. 

It noted that the prime minister was in a position to change the law and remove this one-year statute of limitations, and urged the government to do so to prevent the statute from being used as a barrier to investigate serious allegations by public office holders.