Justice Minister stresses AG does not have investigative powers, says criticism is ‘unjust’

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici stressed that the Attorney General (AG) does not have investigative powers, so calls for his resignation due to incompetence is unjustified.

Bonnici was speaking in Parliament during a debate on the Public Administration Act which seeks to introduce a permanent parliamentary committee that would scrutinise Ministers' choices for top posts in certain public entities.

He took the opportunity to respond to a debate which took place the previous day in Parliament on the rule of law in Malta. A special debate was organised following the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Civil society and the Opposition called for the removal of the AG and the Police Commissioner (PC) due to incompetence, and called for their replacements to be chosen through a 2/3 majority in Parliament.

Over the previous two years, calls were repeatedly made by the Opposition for the PC and the AG to resign for failing to initiate investigations into members of government when faced with allegations of corruption. A series of leaked Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) earlier this year detailed suspicions of kickbacks and money laundering by key government members, who denied all wrongdoing. The Opposition accused the PC of sitting on those reports, failing to investigate or bring criminal proceedings against the named individuals.

This evening in Parliament, Bonnici delivered an explanation at length on how the AG does not have the power to investigate, except in the case of money laundering when he can request that a magistrate orders an inquiry and a sort of audit into the suspect's assets.

He went on to say that when the FIAU passes on reports to the police on possible wrongdoing, police must find proof of the minimum standard required by the courts for criminal proceedings to be initiated.

Bonnici said that it is not true that the police "never investigated", but that the police would not have found the level of proof demanded to initiate criminal proceedings.

 He did not explicitly say that he was defending police and AG criticism by the Opposition and the public that they did not do their jobs when faced with reports and allegations on possible government corruption, but it can safely be assumed that this is what he is referring to. 

from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/2A4oC1E
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