When a lawyer quit his job at the Attorney General’s office this week and joined the ‘other side’ earlier this week, he dealt another blow to an already rocky murder prosecution.

Charles Mercieca quit his job as a prosecutor with the AG’s office and, in less than 24 hours, became part of Yorgen Fenech’s legal team.

Yorgen Fenech stands accused of being a mastermind in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017.

The Attorney General’s Office is leading the prosecution against Fenech.

The reason why the move is controversial is clear as day.

Attorney General Peter Grech has told this newsroom that he is “concerned” about this move, the circumstances of which have created an “unnecessary disturbance” to the office.

In our opinion this disturbance was not only unnecessary but also very grievous.

While we have been told that Mercieca was not privy to any information related to the Caruana Galizia murder prosecution, we can never be fully sure of that, and, in any case, the whole thing just looks bad.

The sudden switching of sides – jumping from prosecution team to defence team – can never be seen as something normal and the young lawyer could not have possibly imagined a different reaction.

The fact that Mercieca was on Fenech’s legal team less than a day after tendering his resignation shows that he was in communication with his new colleagues while he was still under the employ of the Attorney General.

It is practically impossible that he quit and found the new job in a 19-hour timeframe.

While saying that proof is required to determine whether there was a breach, the AG said the code of ethics requires that lawyers and legal procurators working in his office “shall not solicit personal appointments or positions for themselves except as may be permitted by the Office of the Attorney General itself or by law.”

Another section of the code quoted by the Peter Grech says that AG lawyers and legal procurators should conduct their behaviour in communications outside their work “with discernment and reserve, particularly with a view to avoiding the spreading of information that is prejudicial to the administration of criminal justice.”

The investigation into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia has hit too many snags along the way, sometimes turning into a charade.

For a start, it is taking too long. The government likes to point out that “three people were arrested and arraigned within two months of the murder” but the fact remains that this case is far from closed, especially with the developments of last November, when Fenech was arrested, and the bombshell claims made thereafter.

The police have faced claims of incompetence for not arraigning Schembri, despite claims that he was leaking sensitive information to the alleged mastermind.

There were sighs of disbelief all round when it emerged in court that Schembri’s Castille office was only sealed ten days after his arrest. Later, a court heard how Schembri had incredulously told investigators that he had ‘lost’ the phone he had allegedly used to speak to Fenech on the eve of the businessman’s attempted escape. The phone was never found.

The case took another hit when it emerged that former Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta was a close friend of Yorgen Fenech and had even travelled abroad with him. The revelations cost Valletta’s wife her job as Gozo Minister.

Then, Fenech’s legal team tried to have the lead investigator removed, claiming that he had close ties with Schembri who, they said, was leaking inside information to Fenech.

We later got to know that the police were essentially investigating themselves over the alleged leak.

No one was ever made to answer for the phantom government job given to middleman Melvin Theuma, and the fact that no government officials have been prosecuted, despite the clear links between Castille and the murder, has thrown more doubts about the efficacy of this investigation.

And now this.

We have to make it clear – this is not the Attorney General’s fault. Peter Grech could not have seen this coming, for Mercieca surely did not inform him that he was switching sides.

The AG said he has confirmed that the lawyer was not privy to any meetings or documents related to the investigation. But doubts about this will always linger. How can we be certain that Merieca never heard his colleagues discussing the case in the corridors of the AG’s office, or perhaps over lunch?

What will be said if Fenech’s lawyers suddenly try on a new strategy? Undoubtedly, some will say that they could be acting on recently acquired inside information. This is precisely why this move stinks.

While Mercieca had every right to quit his job and go into private practice, he should not have joined the ‘opposing side.’ He knew full well how things would look, and the damage that would be caused to this particular judicial process.

There should be clear rules for people employed in such positions. One cannot cross No Man’s Land and join the troops in the opposing trenches just like that, as if it was nothing.

This latest controversy will only serve to strengthen the impression that this murder prosecution is flawed. And the never-ending saga surrounding the country’s biggest ever political scandal will seek deeper and deeper into the absurd.