Judge not expected to recuse himself from tomorrow’s Panama Papers appeal

Numerous legal sources speaking to this newspaper are of the opinion that Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi will not heed calls to recuse himself from a case involving Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff Keith Schembri and Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, as well as four other individuals accused by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil of money laundering activities as revealed by the Panama Papers.

The verdict reached by legal experts speaking to this newspaper

is that since Mr Justice Mizzi had requested all seven to appear before the court tomorrow, and since the first logical item on the agenda would be to rule on Dr Busuttil’s request for the judge to recuse himself from the case, after which a new judge would have to be appointed to hear the appeal, the likelihood is that he will shoot down the request for recusal and proceed with the hearing.

At the last hearing, on 16 August, Mr Justice Mizzi had ruled that all seven people involved are to attend the next hearing, tomorrow, of his own volition and not at the request of Busuttil’s legal representation.

Whatever the outcome, tomorrow’s hearing is bound to produce reactions far and wide given the case’s political sensitivity.

And while the last hearing had been ordered by the judge to be held behind closed doors, Busuttil’s lawyers are expected to insist it be held in open court as the law demands as far as recusal decisions are concerned. Busuttil’s lawyers are expected to argue that as far as recusals go, the law is crystal clear that recusal hearings must be public, and that each challenge raised must be done in open court and decided in open court.

Mr Justice Mizzi has been asked to stand down from the case by Busuttil on account of a possible conflict of interest, as his wife, Marlene Mizzi is a Labour Party Member of the European Parliament.

But legal and political sources, speaking to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, reticent as they are to pass judgement on a judge, have also highlighted that Mr Justice Mizzi is in line for the job of Chief Justice once the tenure of the country’s current top judge, Mr Justice Silvio Camilleri, expires next March.

They have also underscored the curious timeline of events back in late July when the appeal case had fallen on Mr Justice Mizzi’s lap. Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi filed an appeal after Magistrate Ian Farrugia ruled that an investigation should be launched to discover whether money-laundering laws had been broken. The three had initially accepted to cooperate with the investigation but later filed an appeal. The other four involved in the case are: Brian Tonna, Karl Cini, Malcolm Scerri and Adrian Hillman. They had also lodged their appeals on the same date.

In the early afternoon of Wednesday, 26 July, Magistrate Ian Farrugia had ruled there were enough grounds for a magisterial inquiry to be opened into Opposition leader Simon Busuttil’s allegations that money laundering, and possibly other laws had been broken when companies had been opened in Panama by Mizzi and Schembri soon after the 2013 general election.

That same day, just hours after the ruling had been delivered, the Office of the Prime Minister issued a statement through the Department of Information to the effect that members of government involved would be cooperating fully with any such investigation. The accused had been given 48 hours to file an appeal against the ruling.

But the next morning, less than 24 hours later, they turned around and filed an appeal against the ruling.

Sources speaking to this newspaper have alleged that the timing was intentional and was down to Mr Justice Mizzi having been the judge on duty on that particular morning, meaning that the appeal case would be heard before him.

The appeal case had also been requested to be heard with urgency for fear that evidence could be destroyed but, sources point out, it is still dragging roughly a month and a half down the road although. To be fair, the Panama Papers revelations are well over a year-and-a-half old and there has been plenty of opportunity for that to have happened in the meantime if that were indeed the case.