Two magistrates have turned down requests for magisterial inquiries concerning Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri because they were made before the wrong forum.

In their decisions, Magistrates Ian Farrugia and Antoine Mifsud Bonnici ruled that the requests presented by lawyer Jason Azzopardi were presented in the wrong forum.

This is because the alleged wrongdoing indicated by Azzopardi took place in Gozo, but the requests for a magisterial inquiry were presented in the Maltese courts.

The requests regarded what Azzopardi described as a "racket" involving favourable mooring spaces in the sister island's Mgarr harbour and exhorbitant expendidure on the swimming pool being built by the government in Victoria.

The Maltese courts have no jurisdiction on matters that take place in Gozo.

In a post on Facebook, Azzopardi said that the fight will continue in the Gozo Courts.

Magistrate Ian Farrugia rejected Azzopardi’s request for a magisterial inquiry into Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, his wife Deborah Camilleri, and three others: Christoph Caruana, Anthony Caruana, and Marcel Meilaq.

Azzopardi’s allegations centred around information he said he had about a racket on the giving out of berths in the Mgarr Port in Gozo, which he said involved false declarations, bribery, and criminal association.

The racket, the former PN MP alleged, had been ongoing from 2022 up until the previous few weeks.

He alleged that the racket was done with the Gozo Minister’s blessing and also mentioned that his wife was the Head of Transport Malta in Gozo but was also working as a lawyer in Gozo’s Courts frequently during working hours.

The allegations levelled by Azzopardi involved criminal association, money laundering, bribery, false declarations, and computer misues among others.

Magistrate Farrugia noted that those accused by Azzopardi all rejected every allegation made against them by entering a number of exceptions and legal submissions.

Those that Azzopardi accused emphasised, without prejudice to their own submissions and statements of innocence, that the former PN MP had presented the inquiry in the wrong forum, as being that the alleged crimes mentioned supposedly happened in Gozo and the suspects are Gozitan, it had to be presented in the Gozitan Courts, not in Malta.

Magistrate Farrugia noted that his assignment as Duty Magistrate was specifically for the Court of Magistrates in Malta – which meant that he had no jurisdiction on what happens in Gozo and on whether a magisterial inquiry can actually be ordered in Gozo.

He therefore accepted the exception presented by the accused and abstained from taking any further consideration on Azzopardi’s request for an inquiry.

In a separate decision, another magistrate in the Maltese courts also abstained over a request for a magisterial inquiry on an issue in Gozo.

In this case, Azzopardi's request was for an inquiry regarding the Olympic-sized swimming pool and aquatic centre which had ran €8 million over budget. Construction costs for the project amounted to over €17 million, when they were meant to cost €9 million, the report states.

Azzopardi had quoted articles that appeared in the press referring to the expenditure on the pool's construction in Gozo. Azzopardi had said that the project was meant to have been completed years ago, but was not and the expenses kept on increasing. Azzopardi said that Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri and his Permanent Secretary John Borg squandered public funds by ordering that work that was done on the pool years ago be removed so that they could inflate the project's costs, the decision reads.

Azzopardi also alleged that the concrete used for the construction of the pool was purchased from a factory that operates illegally in Gozo.

The Times of Malta had previously reported that the former PN MP said there is reasonable suspicion of deliberate mismanagement to transfer funds belonging to the public into private hands. Azzopardi had asked the inquiring magistrate to urgently launch an inquiry to look for evidence related to misappropriation, abuse of public office and embezzlement among other things.

The court's decision reads that Minister Camilleri had, together with his response to the inquiry request, said that Azzopardi's application was filed in the wrong forum. The court noted that both the minister and the Permanent Secretary, in their responses, presented preliminary exceptions that are on importance as they are consequential on the continuation of the application.

The inquiring Magistrate, Antoine Agius Bonnici, in his decision said that the request refers to issues that occurred in Gozo, and said that this application falls outside his assignment as appears in the order by Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti on 1 April. As such, he abstained from hearing the inquiry request.

Clint Camilleri had previously said that the request for a magisterial inquiry filed by Jason Azzopardi concerning the Gozo Aquatic and Sports Centre is "political persecution". In his statement, Camilleri had said that "they are trying to tarnish me with every means and every tool". Regarding the aquatic and sports centre, the minister said that "of course, it came at a higher cost". He added that the project is almost finished and that "the €9 million that was quoted is only one construction tender out of seven tenders... the six other tenders are tied to the completion of this project and are being completely ignored". The tenders, he said, cover works such as excavation, mechanical and electrical works, finishes, apertures, the pool flooring system, and other equipment. He stated that the tenders were published on the public eTenders system, "where every interested contractor could have easily submitted an offer". He added that interested contractors were informed that in all cases, the tenders were awarded to the lowest bidder who was technically compatible with the terms and conditions of the call.