Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1531608
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 JANUARY 2025 4 INTERVIEW Karol Aquilina: 'PN government will reverse magisterial inquiry reform' The Prime Minister's attempt to re- form the law regulating magisterial inquiries is aimed at denying people the right to request an inquiry, Karol Aquilina insists. The Opposition justice spokesper- son says the Criminal Code already has the necessary safeguards against abuse. Aquilina sits down with me in the same week the government tabled the First Reading of a Bill to amend the Criminal Code. The move came after a series of statements by Robert Abela on the government's intention to re- form the rules regulating magisterial inquiries. Aquilina insists that the govern- ment's push for reform comes after several Cabinet ministers were target- ed by inquiries. "The Labour Party wants to enact this reform because a number of La- bour politicians have been caught in one scandal after another," he tells me. No details have yet been provided by the government on what the reform will entail, but the Opposition has already made it clear that it will vote against it. "The first thing we will do is try to convince the government not to pro- ceed with this change. This is a step backwards. [...] The government must listen to the wider sentiment that this reform should not go ahead. If it wants to improve the system, magistrates should be better empowered, not have citizens' access to magisterial inquiries limited," he says. Aquilina says it is "obvious" that if the Nationalist Party is elected to gov- ernment, it would reverse the changes made by the current administration and "make the law stronger, not weak- er, as the government is doing now." After Abela, earlier this week, crit- icised inquiry requests by lawyer and former MP Jason Azzopardi as being based on news reports containing "falsehoods", I ask Aquilina whether he believes better evidence should be presented to support claims of wrong- doing or corruption. "Does the Prime Minister not trust Maltese journalists in how they carry out their work? I trust that if a journal- ist publishes a report, they have car- ried out the necessary verifications," he says. He also questions why, despite the fact that the quoted reports had been published for months, no minister had filed a libel suit over the claims made in the articles. "Why is Clint Camilleri claiming political persecution? Is it because an inquiring magistrate will now be col- lecting evidence on what did or did not happen?" he asks. Aquilina also questions Abela's trust in the judiciary, reminding people that in a request for a magisterial inquiry, it is the magistrate who decides whether there is enough evidence to warrant an investigation. "I have full trust that if a magistrate looks at a request and sees that insuf- ficient evidence has been presented, they will reject it, and this has hap- pened more than once. If we do not trust the magistrates to do this, we have a serious problem in the coun- try," he says. Aquilina also voices concern over comments made by the Prime Minis- ter on Sunday, in which he proposed protection to civil servants from per- sonal responsibility when carrying out their official duties. "That statement means the minis- ters are ordering public officials to do something that could get them into trouble," he says. "Abela is essentially telling them to be complicit because the government will cover for them." Opposition justice spokesperson Karol Aquilina says government's proposed reforms to magisterial inquiries aim to restrict citizens' rights. He tells Karl Azzopardi the push for reform follows a series of high-profile inquiries involving Labour politicians. Aquilina insists a Nationalist government will reverse the reforms and strengthen the law