The parents of construction victim Jean Paul Sofia have demanded compensation from all those involved in the project, seven months after the fatal accident at Corradino.
The request for compensation came through a judicial letter filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court, with news emerging as MPs on Wednesday vote on a Nationalist Party motion calling for a public inquiry into the 20-year-old’s death.
Isabelle Bonnici and John Sofia filed the judicial letter against architect Adriana Zammit, who designed the building and an Infrastructure Malta employee; Lands Authority official and alleged human trafficker Kurt Buhagiar, his business partner, Matthew Schembri, who jointly own AllPlus Limited and the latter as director of Whitefrost Company Limited; Boris and Elton Cutajar, who were operators of a concrete pump being used on the day of the incident, and Indis Malta Limited, which leased the land in question.
The Corradino industrial estate construction site where Sofia was killed on December 3 was being developed into a timber factory. Sofia was found dead, buried beneath the rubble following a 14-hour search that ended at 2am.
Five workers were rescued from the rubble, three of them seriously injured.
Police have so far not charged anyone
The police have, so far, not charged anyone with a crime in connection with the collapse and the Building and Construction Authority has not made any public statements on the matter.
In the judicial letter, dated June 28 but only notified to the parties this week, Sofia’s parents claimed that the collapse happened because of their actions, omissions and negligence and gave them all one week to come forward for the liquidation of damages.
They also warned them of further action in default.
The judicial letter was signed by lawyers David Bonello, Christine Bellizzi and Matthew Cutajar.
Sofia’s parents, joined by the Nationalist Party, civil society groups and more than 15,0000 petitioners are calling for a public inquiry in the building collapse.
The petition calling for the public inquiry hit its goal of 15,000 signatures within five days. It was launched by Sofia’s mother on Friday through change.org
Public inquiry petition hits 15,000 signatures
After reaching its original target, the petition’s next goal is 25,000 signatures.
The Labour government is set to push back the motion with an amendment that removes any reference to a public inquiry, urging a speedy conclusion to the ongoing magisterial inquiry instead and insisting that the government was after “full justice” for Sofia and his relatives.
Should the motion be approved by parliament, the opposition will propose an amendment to the government’s amendment, which is identical to its original motion. However, Speaker Anġlu Farrugia has already dismissed the PN’s initial request to change the government amendment.
The PN and Sofia’s parents want a public inquiry to examine whether the authorities and institutions fulfilled their obligation to protect the young man’s life, whether action was taken to prevent his death and what measures needed to be taken in the future.
They want the inquiry to be appointed by a two-thirds majority in parliament and for its work to be both public and streamed live. It should have the necessary resources to carry out its task.
But Labour’s parliamentary majority will likely shoot down the PN’s amendment, passing their watered-down version instead.
The vote will be taken during this afternoon’s parliamentary sitting.