PM deliberately chose someone incompetent and controllable to serve as AG - PN; government, PL reply
Robert Abela deliberately chose someone incompetent and controllable to serve as the Attorney General, the PN has said.A press conference was held in front of the AG's office by PN MP Karol Aquilina and PN MP Paula Mifsud Bonnici on Wednesday, after
Robert Abela deliberately chose someone incompetent and controllable to serve as the Attorney General, the PN has said.
A press conference was held in front of the AG's office by PN MP Karol Aquilina and PN MP Paula Mifsud Bonnici on Wednesday, after a request by former PN Leader Simon Busuttil and PN MEP David Casa to be given a copy of the 17 Black Magisterial inquiry report was rejected by the Attorney General.The request was made following the news of the conclusion of the inquiry into 17 Black and the Panama Papers, with several high profile individuals, including former Minister Konrad Mizzi, the former Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and Yorgen Fenech, to face charges.
The news of Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg's refusal to grant a copy of the inquiry to Busuttil and Casa confirms that the office of the Attorney General has been "taken over" by the Prime Minister and the Labour government, Aquilina said. He continued that the AG's office "does what the government tells them" and that the PN finds it "scandalous".
Aquilina went on to demand that the responsibility for this is shouldered. He reminded that the AG's loyalty should be towards the people not the government.
As things stand, Aquilina said that Buttigieg is "incompetent" and that her appointment following the previous Attorney General Peter Grech's resignation was a "surprise to everyone" due to her inexperience in the criminal courts. He added that Buttigieg was only given the position to serve the interests of the Labour government.
Regarding the Prime Minister's recent statements regarding magisterial inquiries, Aquilina aired his concern particularly since important inquiries were put forth not by the AG, but by citizens and public figures. Furthermore, he said that inquiries should be made public so that everyone may learn from them.
"We are here to renew the call for the AG to do her job and refrain from being the Prime Minister's puppet," Mifsud Bonnici said. She continued that the public has been waiting for the 17 Black inquiry for nine years and so it is in the Maltese public's interest for it to be published, more so when the inquiry was shrouded in "total silence" from the government and "no steps were taken against the accused."
According to Mifsud Bonnici, this is all part of the "devil's pact" between Robert Abela and Joseph Muscat.
Mifsud Bonnici concluded in saying that the PN wants an end to the secrecy so that the Maltese people may know the truth that will allow them to make informed decisions, which is their right. She said that all the PN wants is the AG to do her job.
Government condemns statements
The Government condemned the "disparaging approach adopted by the Opposition towards the Attorney General, involving continuous insults aimed solely at exerting pressure on the functioning of this Office."
"To label the Attorney General as incompetent and attribute disparaging adjectives to her, as the Opposition is doing, represents the worst form of disservice to the work of our country's judicial institutions. The Government reiterates its full confidence in all the institutions of our nation."
PL statement
The Nationalist Party and Bernard Grech have been hijacked by an externist faction dictated by a style of politics that does not distance itself from hatred against anyone who disagrees with it, the Labour Party said.
"The Opposition's attack on institutions shows nothing but double standards by a Nationalist Party that speaks of respect towards institutions but when those same institutions do not play its tune, it bursts into insults towards them. So, no one should fall for provocation and intimidation of an Opposition that has remained the same, embracing the politics of the past, that it is always right while others are wrong."
The Opposition's statement on the Prime Minister is a lie. The Prime Minister brought about major reforms in favour of governance, transparency and the strengthening of the rule of law. Changes that the Opposition never had the will to implement. A liar Opposition which today continued to emerge more openly, along with one of its clique, Jason Azzopardi, admitting to have lied."
"Because the Opposition is only obsessed about lies and attacks at all costs, its scope is only to smear and mud-sling those who are of service to the country," the PL said.
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