Former Labour Party MEP Marlene Mizzi has called for the pardon granted to the middleman in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case to be revoked after what she described as a "lying" reference to retired judge Antonio Mizzi, her husband.
The former judge was named in taped conversations between the middleman Melvin Theuma and alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech.
In the recordings, Fenech claimed that Keith Schembri, then the OPM chief of staff, had spoken to "Mizzi" over bail for the three men accused of carrying out the murder.
Fenech claimed that Schembri told the judge he had gone to inquire about the situation on behalf of "ix-Xiħ", believed to be a reference to now-former prime minister Joseph Muscat.
The 'Mizzi' mentioned in the recordings was identified by Theuma as the former judge in court earlier this week.
Writing on Facebook on Sunday, the former MEP Ms Mizzi dismissed the claims as lies and called for Theuma's presidential pardon to be revoked.
"Two criminals speaking about a judge of known impeccable integrity, over a 38 year carrier [sic] in the judiciary, suddenly become exponents of gospel truth," she said.
"Criminal Yorgen Fenech has nothing to lose now. He is probably facing a deserved life in jail and he will try to bring down as many people with him as possible."
Ms Mizzi said Theuma was merely repeating in court what Fenech had told him in an attempt to calm him down.
"The same judge who denied them bail is extraneous in all of this dishonesty and ignorant and co pelts unaware of all these lies by two criminals trying to cover their asses," she said.
The former MEP also criticised independent politician Arnold Cassola, who called for the claim to be investigated by the Commission for the Administration of Justice.
She described his calls as "unbelievable".
Prof Cassola responded on Sunday by saying Ms Mizzi "should instead be grateful that this will be a way of getting to the real truth and, indeed, she should have asked for this investigation herself".
He said that Theuma's pardon should be revoked if it were proved that he had lied.
"On the contrary, if Theuma were telling the truth, this would open up an enormous can of worms, with regards to the ease with which Joseph Muscat's right hand man, Keith Schembri, could access members of the judiciary and other men of power during the period of Joseph Muscat's premiership."