Justice Minister Owen Bonnici today said he was disappointed with the error made by a judge which forced him to seek a pardon for Zurrieq mayor Ignatius Farrugia after it was realised that a mistake had been committed.

Mr Farrugia was sentenced to four days in prison on appeal on charges of harassment and breaching public peace in a case involving journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. But a presidential pardon was issued within hours after the judge, Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti, realised that a mistake had been committed.

Speaking to journalists this afternoon, Dr Bonnici said that such incidents lead to loss of confidence in the administration of justice. He said that it was however not the first time that such cases had happened.

Dr Bonnici added that the presidential pardon process took a few hours when it was understood that the situation had happened because of a genuine mistake.

He said it was useless working on increasing the efficiency of the judiciary services, if then we have such mistakes.

The Minister however noted that the judge in question took the necessary action immediately.

About the speedy process by which the Presidential Pardon was issued, he said that this was an exceptional case, where it was the judge himself that asked for the pardon." We did things as fast as possible to compensate for the huge mistake," he added.  

Owen Bonnici said that the government is not in a position to penalize members of the judiciary, but there is the Commission for Justice which can serve as a watchdog. 

"I presented amendments so that this Commission has more teeth, but when I did so, certain media said that I was being autocratic. I think this is not the case. Cases like yesterday show that such initiative is necessary."

Minister Owen Bonnici was very evasive to answer whether he would sack Keith Schembri if it was his Chief of Staff and not the Prime Minister's.

He said that the issue in question is related to a problem with tax and of Schembri's offshore accounts.

"The Commissioner for Tax has its regulations and gives the opportunity for everyone to remedy such issues. I think that as for the information that came out, I am sure that porblems related to administration can be solved."

Videos Michael Camilleri