Parliament should strip Victoria Buttigieg of her Attorney General responsibilities and appoint someone who will not "continue to embarrass" the country, ADPD urged on Saturday.

The Green party's statement follows the acquittal of Yorgen Fenech's lawyers over an attempt to bribe a Times of Malta journalist. 

On Monday, Gianluca Caruana Curran and Charles Mercieca were cleared of bribing Ivan Martin after the magistrate said the AG had not indicated the relevant type of bribery.  Because of the 'mistake', the lawyers were cleared of the charges.

Minister Jonathan Attard has pledged to “investigate and act” if justice was hindered.

On Saturday, ADPD chair Carmel Cacopardo said institutions meant to safeguard people's rights deserved respect. "However, how can we respect an institution that instead of defending our society, continuously undermines it,” he asked.

Addressing the same conference, deputy chair Sandra Gauci said that during the tenure of Buttigieg's predecessor, Malta was the only country that did not take action over the Panama Papers’ revelations.

"Additionally, Peter Grech gave the criminals ample time to clean up their act when he stopped the police from raiding the Nexia BT offices.

"The situation with the current AG Victoria Buttigieg is worse. Just this week, the office of the AG was in the news for the wrong reasons: the prosecution led by the AG failed to submit the complete documentation for a European Arrest Warrant.

"There was also the case of the two lawyers accused of the attempted bribery of journalist Ivan Martin when the office of the AG conveniently cited the wrong article in terms of the law, leading to the courts freeing them from accusation," Gauci said, also noting the AG was "responsible for the reduction of charges against a criminal" accused of attempted murder of police officers.

It was time for parliament to ask Buttigieg to tender her resignation or remove her if she refused to do so, Gauci said.

"Parliament must act now to remove her and appoint someone who will not continue to embarrass the nation," Cacopardo added.

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