A criminal court has confirmed a decision to subject a lawyer who spoke of his ministerial connections in a video recorded by undercover journalists to an inquiry.
Earlier this month, a magisterial court upheld an application by civil society group Repubblika and ordered an inquiry against the senior partner in a law firm whose licence to sell Maltese passports was suspended in the wake of footage by a French television station.
Jean Philippe Chetcuti, from the Chetcuti Cauchi law firm, had been filmed by TV station M6 saying he could make use of his political connections to serve clients seeking to acquire Maltese citizenship, especially those whose application had been refused for failing the due diligence test.
Following Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo’s decision on November 7, Dr Chetcuti had filed an application before the criminal court, seeking to overturn that decision.
However, the criminal court confirmed the magisterial decision, though limitedly in respect of Dr Chetcuti in his personal capacity “as sole suspect” and not as company director.
This did not exclude the possibility that in the course of the inquiry, the magistrate could come across “other facts rendering third parties liable to criminal proceedings and there was nothing barring the inquiring magistrate from investigating new facts, ensuring that all evidence is preserved,” the court said.
In a decree handed down on Friday, Madam Justice Edwina Grima declared that the aim of the inquiry into the merits of the case was “the search for truth”.
“Therefore the role of the inquiring Magistrate was to gather and preserve all evidence, direct and indirect, which might determine whether the alleged crime was actually committed.”
Moreover, such an inquiry was intended to identify people that should be investigated by the police or face criminal charges, the court added.
Madam Justice Grima observed that a private citizen requesting such an inquiry could not have all tools at his disposition to produce evidence supporting his claims. However, that was the whole purpose of such an inquiry.
In this case, the alleged crime of trading in influence was liable to a jail term exceeding three years, while a suspect and the material elements of the alleged crime had been indicated, thereby confirming the magistrate’s decision paving the path to a criminal inquiry, the Court added.
In October the case had been referred to the Chamber of Advocates, over an alleged breach in the lawyers’ code of ethics.
In return, the Chamber referred it to the Commission for the Administration of Justice.
Lawyer Jason Azzopardi is assisting Repubblika.