Prosecutor joins murder accused’s team
The trial of a Maltese tycoon accused of ordering the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been rocked by the revelation that a prosecutor switched sides and joined the defendant’s legal team. Charles Mercieca, a lawyer at Malta’s attorney general’s office which is handling the case, resigned at 5pm on Tuesday last week before reappearing in court at 9am on Wednesday as part of the team defending Yorgen Fenech. Critics said Mercieca’s sudden leap from the prosecutor’s office to the gambling tycoon’s defence was the latest example of the rampant conflicts of interest on the island. ‘‘This is unacceptable and possibly a criminal offence,’’ said Corinne Vella, the sister of Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb in 2017 at the age of 53 after a career exposing sleaze in Maltese business and politics. The investigation into her murder has exposed evidence suggesting high-level government collusion in the killing and highlighted the island’s lax banking rules, mafia-linked online gambling industry and the sale of EU passports to shady oligarchs. Responding to the outcry, Mercieca told the Times of
Malta that ‘‘during my time with the Attorney General’s Office I was never involved either directly or indirectly in Yorgen Fenech’s case or any other cases which have anything to do with the circumstances surrounding the case’’. Jason Azzopardi, justice spokesman for the opposition, called for a criminal investigation.