Since her appointment as Attorney General in September 2020, Victoria Buttigieg has faced calls for resignations 10 times, over eight issues.

She has always ignored them.

The calls for her resignation have mainly been made by the Nationalist Party and civil society NGO Repubblika, for reasons which vary from having failed to act on arrest warrants, alleged breach of ethics and allegations regarding abusing her position, among other things.

Speaking with The Malta Independent on Sunday, the PN’s spokesperson for Justice Karol Aquilina, said that Buttigieg has “consistently made irresponsible decisions and committed numerous blunders”. Moreover, he told this newsroom that her actions have so greatly tarnished the reputation of her Office that “only her removal can restore the respect and integrity it deserves”.

Repubblika’s president Robert Aquilina, meanwhile, said that the Attorney General’s autonomy is an obligation, a “burden that an attorney general must carry as they seek, honestly and competently, to ensure justice for our community”. However, “Victoria Buttigieg doesn’t even come close” to fulfilling this, he said (see separate story with more comments).

An email sent to the Attorney General for her comments has not been replied.

These are the 10 cases in which Buttigieg was called upon to resign her office.

1. The first time Buttigieg was called to resign was on 17 February 2022 by Repubblika. The AG had offered a 10-year plea deal to Darren “it-Topo” Debono in exchange for his testimony detailing who his accomplices during the 2010 HSBC heist were. After having attempted murder charges dropped to secure the reduced 10-year prison sentence, Debono said he would only testify against Vince “il-Koħħu” Muscat, and not any others, citing that he feared for his family’s lives. Buttigieg “never explained why she forgave a criminal who shot at police,” the NGO said at the time, “it is clear to us that after this betrayal of justice, the Attorney General should resign”.

2. The second time a call for her resignation was made was on the same issue. On 1 June 2022, the Malta Police Union (MPU) joined Repubblika’s call for her resignation, publicising their frustration due to Buttigieg “failing to protect police” in the HSBC heist case. The union expressed its disappointment that Buttigieg “did not have the decency” to reply to a judicial protest filed by them on 14 January that year. This judicial protest was filed after the charges relating to the attempted murder of police officers were dropped.

“The Union is requesting the resignation of the Attorney General for the only reason that she failed to protect the protectors and those who try to keep our country safe,” the union had said.

3. Later that same month, on 27 June 2022, Repubblika called for the AG’s resignation over another issue.

A judge had cleared two of Yorgen Fenech’s lawyers of allegedly trying to bribe a Times of Malta journalist (who had refused), after the magistrate responsible for the case said that the Attorney General’s office had failed to specify the relevant type of bribery. In her judgement on the case, Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras said that while the lawyers had been charged with active bribery and that the compilation of evidence was set out in such a manner by the prosecution to reflect these charges, the Attorney General had indicated a different provision of law – one which concerned passive bribery in the private sector – in its note for referral. With the procedural errors in mind, the court cleared the two lawyers of the charges brought against them.

“These are not mistakes,” Repubblika had stated. “Today, the Maltese State has told its honest civilians that it will not care for or protect them.” The civil society movement then requested for Parliament to take action and hold a vote to remove Buttigieg from her post.

4.      The fourth call for her resignation came on 30 June 2022, just three days later. The call was also made by Repubblika, over yet another issue, this time relating to an error the Attorney General’s office made over an extradition procedure. The prosecution, led by the AG, failed to submit the complete documentation regarding a European Arrest Warrant (EAW), leading to the dismissal of extradition procedures against a man wanted in Italy in connection with drug-trafficking.

Repubblika had said that Buttigieg should immediately resign and apologise for her incompetence. If she remains in place, it had said, she should be removed from leading an institution that supposedly has the duty to fight against crime but, instead, is using it to guarantee impunity.

One must note that this decision was later (on 2 August 2022) successfully appealed by the Attorney General who argued that the Court of Magistrates had failed to follow the procedure laid down in the Extradition (Designated Foreign Countries) Order and had “decided to hear the proceedings in a manner contrary to the spirit of the same law that regulates proceedings triggered by an EAW”.  The judge ordered that the case be sent back to the court of magistrates to decide the case anew in the light of the newly-exhibited documentation.

5. The fifth call for her resignation came from the ADPD on 2 July 2022. The party cited the aforementioned incidents as reasons for her to step down. In their published statement calling for Buttigieg to vacate her post, the party stated: “One must agree with the Chamber of Advocates’ insistence that Victoria Buttigieg should not have been appointed Attorney General in the first place… The mammoth deficiencies being exposed under her remit confirm how right they were.”

6.      On 30 September 2022, the sixth call for her resignation was made, this time by the Nationalist Party. Repubblika’s president Robert Aquilina had presented authenticated copies of International and European arrest warrants against Pilatus Bank officials in court. These arrest warrants were signed by Magistrate Ian Farrugia a year-and-a-half before, on 24 February 2021, he said. It was previously revealed in sections of the press that international arrest warrants for Pilatus officials were issued by Malta through Interpol at the end of January 2022. The Opposition insisted that the revelations from the Pilatus Bank case show that Buttigieg is “consistently abusing her position”, and thus, called for AG Buttigieg’s resignation. They also reiterated their proposal for attorney generals to be selected through a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

7. The seventh call for her resignation was made by Repubblika on 7 November 2022. Repubblika called for the AG’s removal following further developments within the same Pilatus Bank case. On this date, this newsroom reported that the AG had requested for the courts not to compel her or Police Inspector Pauline D’Amato from the Financial Crimes Investigation Department (FCID) to testify in Repubblika’s case over “the police’s failure to prosecute senior officials at Pilatus Bank”. Mr Justice Falzon Scerri rejected these requests, meaning that the pair had to testify in court the following day as initially ordered. Following this court sitting on 8 November 2022, the NGO reiterated its call for the AG’s resignation and called for Parliament to commence impeachment proceedings.

8. The eighth call came on 15 February of this year and was made by the PN. The PN called for the resignation of Buttigieg for failing to carry out her duties, which caused a delay in the Melvin Theuma phantom job court case. Theuma, the middleman in the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination, had allegedly been put on government payroll without requiring him to do any work for a month.

Justice Minister Jonathan Attard commented on this situation, saying "I have full faith in the attorney general herself, her Office, and in the institutions”.

9. On 29 March the ninth resignation call was made, also by the PN, because of Buttigieg’s inaction following the court’s nullification of the Steward Healthcare agreement which passed on three public hospitals to be run by the private sector. PN spokesman for Justice Karol Aquilina, speaking about the Steward Healthcare decision, had said that “the court said two important things about the Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg”.

“Firstly, the court said that she had to monitor the implementation of the contract and take action against any conditions that weren’t met and, secondly, the AG had the obligation to rescind the contract herself if she found that conditions weren’t being met,” said Aquilina. Saying that she had done none of these things after a month, the PN called for the immediate resignation of Buttigieg.

10. The 10th and, so far, last call for her resignation was made on 21 July, also by the Nationalist Party.

Buttigieg was accused of breaching the code of ethics after, according to the PN, she allegedly passed on confidential information from the Jean Paul Sofia magisterial inquiry to Prime Minister Robert Abela and Justice Minister Attard. The PN contended that Buttigieg had shared information on Sofia’s construction site death that she had received from the magistrate.

The Opposition had cited that this was a clear violation of Article 1(6) of the Code of Ethics for Advocates and Legal Procurators in the Attorney General’s Office. This clause states that: “They shall keep all documents and information in their possession confidential unless their role or the interests of justice require otherwise.” The Nationalist Party said that Buttigieg filing her resignation from her post as AG was “the only honourable path she has left”.