Nationalist MP and lawyer Jason Azzopardi has said that the alleged crimes committed by Education Minister Justyne Caruana could land her up to six years in jail, not six months, as many as saying.

Azzopardi used his Facebook account to say that reports on a possible six-month jail term for Caruana are not precise.

First of all, he said, the Hyzler report which found that Caruana was in breach of ethics in giving a €15,000 contract to a “friend” does not mention a potential jail-term, let alone how long it could be,

What Caruana allegedly did – and what her friend Daniel Bogdanovic and permanent secretary Frank Fabri were involved in – means that at least three Criminal Code articles were broken. One of them carries a jail term of between two and six years, together with a general interdiction.

This means that if the police proceed against the three and they are found guilty, they can be jailed for more than six years, Azzopardi wrote.

Commissioner for Standards in Public Life George Hyzler found that the awarding of a €15,000 contract to Bogdanovic by Caruana amounted to an “abuse of power” by the Minister.

In his report, published after a unanimous decision by the Standards Committee on Tuesday morning, the Commissioner said that Caruana had breached ethics by “giving preferential treatment” to Bogdanovic by giving him a direct order contract which he was “neither qualified nor competent enough to carry out.”

Hyzler also noted that a concerted effort was made for Bogdanovic’s incompetence for the role to be hidden because the work related to the contract was carried out by someone else – Paul Debattista, one of Caruana’s ministry consultants.