“The magisterial inquiry won’t establish everything,” Isabelle Bonnici pleaded with Robert Abela. Rudely speaking over her, Abela insisted: “Everything, it will establish everything. And whoever’s telling you otherwise is using your case for ulterior motives. Do not let anybody capitalise from your unfortunate case.”
“This in genere inquiry did not have – nor could it legally have – the aim of examining whether there were any administrative and/or legislative failures,” Magistrate Marse Ann Farrugia’s report declared.
So, whoever told Bonnici that the magisterial inquiry does not “establish everything” was absolutely right. And Abela was wrong, again.
“The magisterial inquiry has limits,” Jean Paul Sofia’s mother told Abela. “No, it has no limits,” Abela replied.
Abela owes Sofia’s family and the entire nation a humble apology. Abela twisted the truth. He accused the grieving mother of allowing herself to be used for partisan political reasons.
Abela is a lawyer. He brags he’s spent 20 years in the law courts and that he’s been brought up in the law. He must know that what he told Bonnici, live on camera, was false. He certainly knew he was deceiving her. “Whoever is telling you this is using you,” Abela maliciously accused her. “Nobody is telling me,” the resilient mother retorted.
Well, now the inquiring magistrate herself is telling Bonnici and the rest of the country that Abela is a prat. The magistrate’s 89-page proces-verbal took on Abela head-on. This was the magistrate’s chance to rectify the falsehoods Abela and his party media had spewed for months.
The answer is categorical: “This in genere inquiry did not have, nor could it legally have, the aim of examining whether there were any administrative and/or legislative failures.”
For months, Abela insisted that “a magisterial inquiry has broad and strong powers – more than a public inquiry”.
The magistrate robustly rubbished Abela’s claims: “Although the criminal code gives the inquiring magistrate broad powers to exercise his duties, he can only use those powers for and within the scope of the criminal code. The magistrate cannot legally use those powers for any other scope.”
The magistrate must have been absolutely livid at Abela, his attempts to humiliate her, his public statements condemning her and his parliamentary motion harassing her to conclude her inquiry. Abela missed no opportunity to denigrate the magistrate, to malign her work ethic, to minimise the enormity of her task and to incite his supporters against her. Among Labour’s core supporters, Farrugia became a household figure of ridicule and contempt.
Now it was Magistrate Farrugia’s turn to have the last word. In cold, legalistic terms she took Abela to the cleaners: “In the first place, the magistrate feels it opportune to delineate the parameters in which she exercised her power and fulfilled her duties,” she announced in her report. Translated, that reads: “Robert Abela, let me tell you what a magistrate’s role is because you don’t have a clue.”
Our clueless prime minister was given a public lecture by the magistrate about the roles and powers of the inquiring magistrate- Kevin Cassar
“The inquiry has all the tools to identify whoever was responsible,” Abela told Bonnici outside parliament.
Magistrate Farrugia rebutted: “The inquiring magistrate does not have the role to establish guilt or innocence of any person. The inquiring magistrate is not part of the police and far less of the prosecution. It is certainly not the function of the magistrate to determine if a particular person is probably or certainly responsible for the investigated crime.”
Our clueless prime minister was given a public lecture by the magistrate about the roles and powers of the inquiring magistrate. She put him in his place. The magistrate publicly exposed him as either a liar or as a total incompetent in the very field he graduated in – the law.
When Abela told Bonnici that the magisterial inquiry “establishes everything” he was either being deceitful or betraying his absolute ignorance.
“Its (the magisterial inquiry’s) function is to establish that there is sufficient evidence to show that a crime has been committed and whether there is sufficient evidence to state that criminal procedures could possibly be instituted,” the magistrate’s report clarified.
“After Miriam Pace’s death nothing happened,” Bonnici insisted with Abela. “The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) was set up,” the prime minister contradicted.
“During two and a half years of construction, the site (at Kordin) was never visited by the BCA,” the magistrate’s report concluded. The reason for that abysmal failure on the part of Abela’s BCA was “lack of resources”, according to testimony submitted by Sean Mizzi, a BCA representative.
There wasn’t a single inspection of the site by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority either. Not one.
Abela bragged with the victim’s mother that he had set up the BCA. But he failed to give the BCA adequate resources to do its job. On paper, Abela can boast he’s set up an authority. In truth, it’s another paper tiger – completely useless and totally ineffective.
The magistrate’s report is a masterpiece. It catalogues the utter chaos and incompetence at that construction site. “There was nobody with the skill who had any clue what they were doing or the consequences of their deficiencies.”
The licensed mason whose signature was on the commencement notice never knew about the construction. His signature was allegedly forged by Matthew Schembri, one of the owners of the company given land by INDIS Malta.
“The technical management of the site as well as supervision appear to have been conducted via WhatsApp,” the report noted. “The architect, Adriana Zammit had no contact either with the contractor or the workers.”
The builders were registered as carpenters. One of them claimed he had undergone a half-day course. The others had no training whatsoever.
The builders never saw the architect. The owner, Matthew Schembri, also played the role of site manager but had absolutely no competence for the role.
“The testimony in this case gives a picture of incompetence and amateurism in the construction industry that does not reflect the dangers of on-site work,” the magistrate concluded.
But what the inquiring magistrate’s report really showed is that Abela attempted to mislead the grieving mother in order to hide the fact that he was entirely unable or unwilling to protect her son’s life and those of other innocent citizens.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.