President of NGO Repubblika Robert Aquilina filed a constitutional case in his personal capacity on Monday, on the right to a fair hearing over the police's refusal of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
He filed this case as he has been battling the refusal of his FOI request for almost three years, and is also concerned with the impartiality of the tribunal’s Chairperson, Noel Camilleri.
In the Tribunal case, Repubblika is asking to be provided with a list of the people who were recommended to be part of the FIAU board of governors back in 2014.
This list would include former deputy commissioner Silvio Valletta who was chosen by former Finance Minister, Edward Scicluna. Valletta later retired from the force and the FIAU board in 2019 amidst reports of conflicts of interest given his then marriage to a government minister.
In July, Aquilina had spoken to The Malta Independent and said that Camilleri had behaved in a “subservient manner” when he offered his resignation to the government during the last election. This resignation cause the case to be delayed further.
It is standard practice for all publicly appointed officials to tender their resignation until the new government is appointed. Aquilina is arguing that because the appointment of the chairman depends on the government in place, then this shows that the tribunal is not completely independent from the government, even though it is supposed to be.
Furthermore, Camilleri also showed a lack of impartiality when he publicly took to Facebook to praise former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
Camilleri had written: “We will probably have to wait a long, long time until they admit that they don’t have a vision like you did, Dr Muscat. However, your vision leaves us breathless.”
The case has been filed against the State Advocate, Data Protection Commissioner Ian Deguara, Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa and Paul Zahra as permanent secretary of the Finance Ministry.
Aquilina is asking the court to declare his violation to a fair hearing, declare a violation of his right to information after he has been seeking this information for almost three years, and ask that he is given the information he has been seeking since 2020.