Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1116643
4 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 In a reaction outside the law courts, Adrian Delia said he would appeal the decision in the Constitutional Court. "It is my duty that I fight this and request that the full report is publicised." Delia said the ruling itself recognised that the Egrant in- quiry was a matter of public in- terest and the Opposition had a constitutional obligation to act as a watchdog. "To fulfill my duty as a pub- lic watchdog, I will appeal the decision and ask the constitu- tional court of appeal to treat the matter with urgency," De- lia said. The AG had told the court that publishing the entire Egrant Inquiry report whilst redacting certain details was "not an option". Both Delia and Prime Min- ister Joseph Muscat had tes- tified in the court case. The conclusions from Magistrate Aaron Bugeja's inquiry on the ownership of the secret Pana- manian company Egrant were published back in July, with the Prime Minister stating that he wanted the full inquiry pub- lished, despite the Attorney General's resistance to such a move. Delia said it was the right of the PN leader to file Constitu- tional proceedings, referring to the AG's argument that De- lia had not exhausted his ordi- nary remedies. Article 518 of the Criminal Code allows the AG to send the acts of an inquiry back to the inquiring magistrate until he is satisfied with it. The AG had argued that the Leader of the Opposition doesn't have an investigative role and that this belonged to journalists. "The inquiry should not be used to have an MP try to ac- quire a document to use at the opportune moment to obtain a political advantage. So the PM or the Minister of Justice are either not politicians or in par- liament because they have this document. "Is the Leader of the Opposi- tion supposed to sit down and wait for a journalist to write a story to inform the public? Because he isn't a journalist? How can we come here and say that the role of the Leader of the Opposition isn't that of a watchdog? Because the EU court only mentioned in rela- tion to journalists? But that is because it never met such a case – this is the first time!" The AG had insisted that a distinction had to be made between when the AG is act- ing in a quasi-judicial role and when taking an administrative decision. In the latter case, ju- dicial review applies. The AG is also treated as a member of the executive branch of gov- ernment in the Constitution, he said. In his 86-page judgment, Mr. Justice Robert Mangion point- ed out that not every difference in treatment is discrimination. "Differentiation, in order to be legitimate, must base itself on objective and reasonable grounds, taking into consider- ation the objective and effect of the measures …there must be a reasonably proportionate rapport between the means employed and the objective in mind." Due to the fact that the in- quiry could have led to the Prime Minister's resignation, it emerges clearly that the Leader of the Opposition was not in the same position as the Prime Minister with regards to the Egrant inquiry report, said the judge, finding no breach of Delia's fundamental rights. Labour: 'Sign of weakness' Opposition Leader Adrian Delia's inconsistency in the Egrant saga was a sign of weak- ness and a lack of leadership, Labour MPs said on Tuesday. They said Delia was guilty of pulling the court into a politi- cal argument, when he asked it to scrutinise the office of the Attorney General in a case he filed to obtain a copy of the Egrant inquiry report made public last July. Earlier on Tuesday, the First Hall of the Civil Court denied a request by Opposition lead- er Adrian Delia to be granted access to the full copy of the Egrant inquiry report. Addressing a press confer- ence, MPs Robert Abela, Ste- fan Zrinzo Azzopardi and Ed- ward Zammit Lewis criticised Delia for his lack of consist- ency on the matter, noting that a year ago Delia had expressed doubts about whether it was strategically beneficial for the PN to make the allegation its own. "Back in 2018, Delia said that former PN leader Simon Busuttil had made the Egrant frame-up his own and had bur- dened the PN with claims that Egrant belongs to the Prime Minister. Now Delia is doing the same thing when he filed this case for the AG to be scru- tinised and refusing to bow his head to a court decision," Zammit Lewis said. He insisted that the claim that Egrant belonged to the Prime Minister was the biggest lie in Malta's political history and one which led to an early election and threatened the stability of a nation that was doing well. "A year ago, Delia then went on to say that the AG's deci- sion not to publish the entire inquiry report was biased," Abela said. "Today the court decided that the AG has act- ed fairly so that the ongoing criminal proceedings are not compromised. It also vindi- cated the Prime Minister's cor- rect political decision to not publish the entire report even though he wanted to." He criticised the Opposition leader for asking Simon Bu- suttil to suspend himself from Parliament after the court de- cided that Egrant did not be- long to the Prime Minister on- ly to back down shortly after. Delia, they said, was also guilty of filing a court case challeng- ing the AG's decision. "Delia made a legal U-turn because it was a political ar- gument he was trying to make and not a legal one. Today, the court denied all of Delia's pleas and in 150 pages told him that he's wrong on every level," Ab- ela continued. Zrinzo Azzopardi said the PN's challenge was obvious and that there was a rift in the party that revealed Delia's weak leadership. "After Delia made a declara- tion saying that Simon Busuttil should shoulder responsibil- ity, the PN cracked in two," he said. "The challenge was obvi- ous – Busuttil refused to do this and burdened Delia with the Egrant narrative." maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 MAY 2019 Delia to appeal Court's Egrant decision Adrian Delia addressing media outside the law courts after yesterday's ruling