Updated 4.48pm
Statements made by a Nationalist MP in parliament took centre stage in court on Wednesday, as Yorgen Fenech’s lawyers argued that the comments linking the Electrogas project to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia had breached their client’s right to a fair hearing.
Fenech’s lawyers highlighted the statements made by Beppe Fenech Adami during a public accounts committee hearing last week during a brief session at the ongoing compilation of evidence against the man accused of complicity in Caruana Galizia’s murder.
“On a day by day basis we are facing inroads and infringements of rights… in hindsight we’ll say that there was a travesty of justice,” started off defence lawyer Charles Mercieca, while making submissions about the application filed by Fenech on June 1.
Running through the arguments made in that application, Mercieca stressed that Fenech Adami had repeated the assertions he made before the parliamentary committee on his Facebook page.
Moreover, his fellow MP Karol Aquilina, who had signed the reply to Fenech’s application and who represented Fenech Adami in court on Wednesday, had adopted his colleague’s statement, repeating it on television.
Fenech Adami had said that “had the Electrogas project not happened, Daphne Caruana Galizia would not have been killed," adding that Caruana Galizia had been murdered "because of corruption in the Electrogas deal".
Mercieca argued that Fenech Adami was not an ordinary person or even a normal MP, but rather the chairman of the PAC. He pointed out that it was the second time that Fenech’s defence team had sought recourse before the courts under similar circumstances.
Fenech’s lawyers had also sought similar recourse, under article 366C of the criminal code, following public statements by PN MP and Caruana Galizia family lawyer Jason Azzopardi.
They noted that in a ruling in proceedings filed by Tancred Tabone, the Constitutional Court had found that similar public statements made by minister Owen Bonnici had breached the applicant’s fundamental rights.
“We’re not asking for an acquittal, but just give us a fair hearing,” Mercieca concluded.
Representing Fenech Adami, lawyer and fellow MP Karol Aquilina told the court that MPs were bound by a code of ethics and that Fenech Adami had at no point during the PAC discussion named the accused.
As Aquilina spoke, Fenech Adami followed proceedings in court.
During that session, the committee was questioning Electrogas shareholders Paul Apap Bologna about the Auditor General’s report into that project, analysing its findings but never delivering any decision, clarified Aquilina.
“It’s the only committee chaired by an Opposition MP. The majority are government MPs and every member has a right to object to questions,” explained the lawyer.
“Nowhere, at no point did Fenech Adami refer to Yorgen Fenech,” stressed Aquilina, adding that discussions at PAC amounted to what could be termed as “political bicker.”
Moreover as PAC chair, Fenech Adami could not be classified as a public official or authority in terms of article 366C, unlike Owen Bonnici who, when making “loaded and direct questions” at the committee in Tancred Tabone’s case, had done so in his capacity as minister.
That was the fundamental difference, argued Aquilina, rebutting Mercieca’s analogy to that case.
Besides, since the PAC delivered no decision, there could be no breach of rights, said Aquilina, prompting Mercieca to counter that the PAC could not be “partitioned.”
Members of that committee were fulfilling a public role and the court in the Tancred Tabone case had left “no room for interpretation.”
In written submissions to court, Fenech Adami noted that Gasan Enterprises Ltd had publicly declared last September that they were "mortified and shocked that links are being drawn between this project and the brutal assassination of Mrs Daphne Caruana Galizia."
Gasan was a shareholder in GEM Holdings Ltd and Fenech Adami said that public statement was what he was referring to at the PAC meeting.
Magistrate Rachel Montebello is expected to decree on the issue in chambers.
The case continues next week.
Lawyer Marion Camilleri also assisted the accused.