Prime Minister Robert Abela on Thursday continued to relentlessly defend the magisterial inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia, insisting that this will achieve full justice. He also promised that he will publish the findings of the magisterial inquiry, but remained adamantly against setting up a public inquiry.

After shattering the hearts of Sofia’s family when the government on Wednesday voted against an Opposition motion calling for a public inquiry into the death of Sofia, in an interview with MaltaToday Abela continued to defend the government’s position.

“The proof will come out when the magisterial inquiry concludes,” Abela said.

“I will carry the responsibility to achieve justice,” Abela said and insisted that any doubts will go away once the magisterial inquiry is concluded.

Sofia died when a building under construction collapsed in Kordin last December. Calls for a public inquiry have been rejected by the government, which is insisting that the magisterial inquiry is enough. On Thursday, Abela also wote to the Chief Justice a second time urging a swift conclusion to the magisterial inquiry.

If the magisterial inquiry’s conclusions do not hit all the points, then Abela promised that there will be additional investigations to make sure that everything is covered. But first, he pleaded: “Can we please let this magisterial inquiry close?”

“There is only one investigation that will achieve justice, it is the magisterial inquiry… it has all the tools needed to achieve justice,” Abela repeated throughout the interview.

He said he will hand over the report of the magisterial inquiry to the young man's family and intends to publish it.

When mentioning the public inquiry he said that this only has an element of publicity, but it does not have the powers to achieve what a magisterial inquiry can achieve. Instead, he argued that the magisterial inquiry has all the tools and powers to achieve justice.

“There are many who believe that this process that stopped with yesterday’s vote… the magisterial inquiry is ongoing.”

Once again, Abela repeated his call to the inquiring magistrate to conclude the magisterial inquiry which has been going on for seven and a half months, and reiterated that he sent a letter to the Chief Justice asking for this.

“I do not want to put pressure on the magistrate, but let’s at least say that this needs to end.”

At one point Abela shut down claims that the conclusions of the magisterial inquiry will be public. When pressed he said that once the conclusions are final and the Attorney General has a copy of these recommendations, Abela pledged that he will immediately request one and be the first to pass a copy of the inquiry to Sofia’s family.

Pressed when asked whether he did not want to call a public inquiry because he was afraid, Abela firmly said, “No no, I am not afraid of anything.”

When asked why he did not even address Sofia’s family in parliament and outside parliament, he said that he simply understood their pain. He expressed that he himself was pained by the doubts about whether what the government is doing is enough to achieve justice.

Abela condemned the PN’s actions and accused them of using the pain of a family that lost their child as a political tactic, whilst misinforming the public that a public inquiry is the way to achieve justice.

When continuously asked why he was not calling a public inquiry which would reveal the shortcomings of the state, Abela repeated constantly that the way to justice is through a magisterial inquiry which will lead to criminal proceedings and also through civil damages.

The land where the building collapsed was leased to Lands Authority official Kurt Buhagiar, alleged human trafficker and his business partner Matthew Schembri. When this was brought up, Abela categorically denied ever being linked to these people. Abela also said that if there was anything irregular about the acquisition of the land then this would come out in the magisterial inquiry. If the magisterial inquiry refuses to investigate this then he promised that there will be further investigations to cover all these allegations.

On the strangers' gallery Sofia’s father shouted, “You can hug your children but I can’t hug mine” at Abela. When asked about this Abela said, “He is right. I cannot respond to him today, when the magisterial inquiry closes they will know that I was not trying to fool them.”

Lastly, when asked about Abela attending a party at Gigenti Palace right after the vote was taken in parliament, Abela admitted that he “could have not gone, true.”