Former Nationalist Party MP Jason Azzopardi has claimed on social media that Magistrate Marseann Farrugia has completed her inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia, and passed it on to the Attorney General.
Azzopardi wrote on his Facebook page that the magisterial inquiry in question was concluded and handed over to Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg on Friday morning.
Jean Paul Sofia was killed last December in the collapse of a partially constructed timber factory in the Corradino Industrial Estate. A magisterial inquiry has been ongoing ever since and nobody has been charged in connection with the incident.
In the meantime, Sofia’s parents have put consistent pressure on the government to appoint a public inquiry into their son’s death and to look into the shortcomings of the whole of the construction industry and those authorities which are supposed to enforce it.
The government continuously resisted such an inquiry, saying that the best way to achieve justice is through a magisterial inquiry. Abela wrote to the Chief Justice twice asking him to implore the magistrate to conclude her inquiry.
The government’s resistance came to the point that it voted against a motion for a public inquiry to be appointed in Parliament last week. Five days later after huge backlash, however, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced a u-turn in the form of the appointment of a public inquiry, which is set to kick off next week.
On the same day that the public inquiry was announced, reports emerged that Magistrate Farrugia had sought a 30 day extension for her inquiry – something which Abela cited heavily in his speech as he announced the public inquiry.
It is a claim which Azzopardi and blogger and author Mark Camilleri disputed was actually true, while it is also a matter which has prompted a rebuke from the Nationalist Party to the Attorney General for – as they said – telling the Prime Minister information which should have been confidential. The Chamber of Advocates also expressed similar concern.
Azzopardi on Friday repeated his assertion that it was not true that the inquiring magistrate had requested an extension.
“Now you know that those who said that the magistrate asked for a 60-day extension was lying,” Azzopardi said after writing his claim that the magisterial inquiry had been concluded.
“Now you know who said that truth, and who lied. How many unjust and cruel attacks there have been to a magistrate who did her job. Attacks with the collusion of the Attorney General,” Azzopardi wrote.
Prime Minister Robert Abela had pledged to publish the conclusions of the magisterial inquiry when it was complete, despite the fact that such a decision can only be taken by the Attorney General.