No official record of Robert Abela’s conversation with a magistrate was kept
No record of the conversation that Prime Minister Robert Abela said he had with a magistrate was kept, meaning that the identity of the member of the judiciary in question remains unknown.
This emerged from a Freedom of Information request and subsequent complaint to the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC) which were filed by independent candidate Arnold Cassola.
During a speech on 29 January, Prime Minister Robert Abela had said that he spoke to a Magistrate who told him that even if Magistrates hand down a strict penalty, this would be overturned in the Court of Appeal.
Abela’s admission that he had spoken to a member of the judiciary directly and informally was widely criticized, including by the Chamber of Advocates and civil society group Repubblika.
The initial FOI request by Cassola was turned down by the Office of the Prime Minister, and the IDPC had then concluded that no document or record had been kept of the conversation between Abela and the female magistrate in question.
Because there were no documents of the conversation, the Commissioner thus concluded, “that the Public Authority did not hold any article on which the information requested by the applicant was recorded in whatever form to meet the terms of the FOI request at the time of receipt of the FOI request.”
In the FOI request, Cassola asked for the identity of the magistrate; the date, place and time of the conversation which Prime Minister Abela had with the magistrate; the format of the conversation; and for the identity of other sitting magistrates and/or sitting judges which the Prime Minister has discussed matters relating to court in private and not in a formal setting.
Arnold Cassola commented on the decision that: “We have now reached the stage where the Prime Minister of the country can hold unregistered conversations with members of the judiciary on the situation of the law courts in Malta, without leaving any record of such conversations.”
“Who can assure us that in the future the Prime Minister will not avail himself of such undocumented conversations with Magistrates, in order to influence the course of judicial processes?”, Cassola questioned.