Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/924080
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 10 JANUARY 2018 News MASSIMO COSTA FORMER Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil has been asked by the court to provide documentary evidence to prove his claim that judge An- tonio Mizzi's decision not to recuse himself in the Panama appeals case would violate Bu- suttil's right to a fair hearing, and consequently make him a 'victim'. This was laid down by judge Joseph Zammit McKeon yes- terday, as the constitutional court case instituted by Busut- til against the Attorney Gen- eral, which was filed because the former PN leader objected to Mizzi's decision to carry on hearing the Panama appeals case despite being married to Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi, continued. The court had previously de- cided that Prime Minister Jo- seph Muscat, his chief-of-staff Keith Schembri and tourism minister Konrad Mizzi, to- gether with businessmen Brian Tonna and Karl Cini of Nexia BT, Malcolm Scerri and Adrian Hillman - all of whom who had filed an appeal from a magis- trate's finding of grounds to launch an investigation linked to the Panama Papers - would join in the suit instituted by Busuttil against the AG. Only Hillman was present during yesterday's sitting, with the others being represented by their lawyers. Zammit Mc- Keon declared that all legal or merit-based pleas regarding the case, together with Busut- til's claims, would be decided on in a single judgement, add- ing that he would not allow any unnecessary arguments between the parties involved. He also declared that Bu- suttil, through his lawyer Ja- son Azzopardi, had to submit within one week the evidence demonstrating why Mizzi's decision to continue to pre- side over the Panama appeals case would cause Busuttil to suffer a breach of his right to a fair hearing due to the judge's marital relationship with Marlene Mizzi. Pawlu Lia, lawyer to the Prime Minister, argued that Busuttil had previously failed 'to get in through the door or window' and was now resort- ing to getting into court as 'our democratic institutions continue to be broken down'. Yesterday's sitting was an- other step in the process which had been started when Busuttil called upon the court to launch an investigation into a number of high profile Mal- tese figures mentioned in the Panama Papers leak. Magistrate Ian Farrugia, presiding over the case, had decreed that the prerequisites for an inquiry had been met, and gave the green light for a magisterial inquiry to estab- lish whether money-launder- ing laws had been broken by government officials opening offshore companies in Pana- ma. The seven subjects of the in- quiry, however, each filed sep- arate appeals to this decision, which lengthened the process significantly. The appeals were assigned to be heard by judge Mizzi, which was the catalyst for Busuttil to challenge the judge's suitabil- ity to hear the case on the fact that the judge's wife had pub- licly expressed an opinion on the Panama Papers scandal. Mizzi refused to step aside, leading Busuttil to claim that his right to a fair hearing had been breached, and thus start- ing the constitutional court case and requesting the ap- pointment of a new judge to hear the appeals case. 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