Yorgen Fenech’s lawyers are calling upon the Police Commissioner to investigate parte civile lawyer Jason Azzopardi and blogger Manuel Delia over what appears to have been “a concerted effort to influence” a judge’s decision on bail. 

After flagging the matter with the chief justice, lawyers for the businessman, who is to face trial over his alleged complicity in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, have now taken the matter a step further by filing a judicial protest against Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà.

Outlining the sequence of events following Fenech’s last bail application filed on August 16, the lawyers denounce what they claim to have been a “systematic attack” kickstarted by the Caruana Galizia family lawyer, assisted by the blogger, against Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti who presided over the bail hearing.

On August 19, the day after submissions on bail were heard in open court and pending the judge’s decision in chambers, it was revealed on social media that back in 2008, Judge Grixti had purchased a boat from the accused’s father, the late George Fenech.

That was when Azzopardi and Delia embarked upon a “concerted effort to influence the decision on bail,” complained Fenech’s lawyers.

And Azzopardi had sharpened his attack by insinuating that Judge Grixti was “prejudiced, partial and dishonest,” shamelessly writing to the Chief Justice and asking him to intervene, said the lawyers. 

They argued that such behaviour runs counter to article 93 of the Criminal Code which states that insulting, threatening or doing something to influence a judge is a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment and a fine. 

Having already flagged the matter to the police commissioner but not knowing if investigations had yet started, the defence lawyers were now formally calling upon the police chief to do so “at once”.

Azzopardi and Delia’s actions constituted an offence against the administration of justice and other public administrations and this was prosecutable by the police ex officio, pointed out the lawyers, holding the commissioner responsible for any damages suffered by Fenech.

Publications of the same kind, frequently uploaded by Azzopardi and the blogger, were prejudicial to Fenech, breaching his fundamental right to a fair hearing by “undermining trust in the judicial process, specifically in the independence and impartiality of the judiciary”.

Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran, Charles Mercieca and Marion Camilleri signed the judicial protest.