Yorgen Fenech’s request for Madam Justice Edwina Grima to abstain from presiding over his trial has been thrown out of court. 

The judge rejected Fenech’s request in a decree issued on Wednesday in which she declared the request “erroneous” and lacking in legal validity, as none of the grounds envisaged by law justified it. 

“Abstaining was a prerogative of the judge, not the parties” the judge declared. 

Fenech stands accused of complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. He was indicted for that crime last month. 

His case was assigned to Madam Justice Grima after the judge initially selected, Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja, abstained from the case. 

But Fenech’s lawyers were unhappy with that choice and called for her to abstain, given that she was one of the most senior judges assigned to hear appeals from the Criminal Court.

The attorney general strongly rebutted that argument, describing it as a “crystal clear attempt at forum shopping to exclude a highly competent judge.” 

Deputy attorney general Philip Galea Farrugia accused Fenech of using “lies and conjecture” to try and exclude the judge from the case. 

It was “totally misleading” to imply that the attorney general was involved in the decision to appoint Madam Justice Grima to preside over the trial, he said, as this choice was solely and exclusively the prerogative of the chief justice. 

The attorney general’s only involvement in the process was to legally vet the document of appointment and to forward the chief justice’s recommendation to the president, he said. 

“It was most shameful for the accused to deliberately and consciously make such false declarations to stultify the proper administration of justice.”

Galea Farrugia said that Fenech’s lawyers knew that there were no legal grounds to request the judge’s recusal and were therefore trying to achieve the same result by asking her to abstain.