Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1542182
STANDARDS Commissioner for the Judiciary, Toni Abela warns an- yone thinking of using his office in bad faith to think again. It is a timely warning to anyone who would want to use this new office as a whacking board to get back at members of the judiciary, who may have delivered a judg- ment not to their pleasing. But in his new role Abela will have to scrutinise his former col- leagues—colleagues he shared the bench with for nine years until his retirement last July—which may raise doubts in people's minds as to how tough he will be. Abela is not perturbed by the question. He will not be uncom- fortable exercising his new role and says members of the judici- ary are professional enough to re- spect his office and know that he is acting in good faith. After only a few days into the new role, Abela has already re- ceived five complaints and three of them concern delays in legal procedures. He acknowledges that justice delayed is justice de- nied, and he does call for justice to be administered swiftly, but equally warns against turning the judiciary into employees focused on closing as many cases as they can in as little time as possible. Abela dismisses comparisons between his office and that of the standards czar scrutinising MPs. One difference he flags is the se- crecy surrounding his work and the cases he oversees. He insists some secrecy in his work is re- quired. Similarly, when asked whether he believes court sittings should start being filmed, Abela voices his opposition to such a prac- tice. The legal processes are there to deliver justice and get things done, not to provide spectacles, he tells me. 4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 DECEMBER 2025 INTERVIEW Toni Abela: 'If you're not coming in good faith, you need not come at all' A few days after taking office as the first-ever Standards Commissioner for the Judiciary, retired judge Toni Abela sits down with Matthew Farrugia to discuss his new job. Over coffee and mince pies, they also debate the transparency of court procedures and how the judiciary is viewed by society