Former PN MP and failed Labour candidate Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando today insinuated that Magistrate Anthony Vella, who is leading the inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, could have ignored a request to take possession of the journalist’s laptop because of his “connections” with the family.

The MCST chairman has written to President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca in her capacity as Chair of the Commission for the Administration of Justice – the body that looks into claims of improper behaviour by members of the judiciary.

Malta Today reported on Sunday that the police had filed a request with the magistrate to take possession of the laptop. The newspaper said the magistrate could not say whether that request had been acceded.

The request from the police came after investigators realised that the laptop they had was an old one that had not been used in a couple of years. Caruana Galizia’s sister, Corinne Vella, told a consortium of journalists working on the so-called Daphne Project that the family was in possession of the laptop and did not trust the police with it. It is believed that the device may contain information about the slain journalist’s sources.

Pullicino Orlando, who used his official MCST email address to submit his request, asked the CAJ “to look into what is widely being held as a very serious shortcoming on the part of Magistrate Anthony Vella. It is now public knowledge that Magistrate Vella ignored the request of the police officers investigating the assassination of Mrs Daphne Caruana Galizia to take possession of a laptop that was withheld from them by family members. This may have been a crucial piece of evidence in this case – a case that has shocked our country and the world.”

The former MP said six months had passed since the request was made.

“This behaviour may or may not have been influenced by Magistrate Vella’s connections with the aforementioned family,” he wrote.