The Nationalist Party has erected billboards showing Prime Minister Robert Abela next to quotes from the letter sent to the Cabinet Secretary by Judge Lawrence Mintoff.

The quote, reads: "For Dr Abela, money was more important than the independence of the judiciary."

Judge Wenzu Mintoff had accused Prime Minister Robert Abela of prioritising money and political calculation over judicial independence in a five-page letter sent to the Cabinet Secretary. In the letter, which became public earlier this week, Mintoff recounts a private WhatsApp exchange and a February 11 meeting with the prime minister concerning the appointment of the next chief justice.

The quote came in a part of the letter where the Judge spoke about an alleged incident regarding Abela when he was an MP.

The judge claims that Abela's reluctance to back him for Chief Justice stems from past friction, including a case related to the 2015 Paqpaqli Għall-Istrina incident, in which dozens were injured when a car crashed into spectators at a charity event organised by the Office of the President. At the time, Abela, then a criminal lawyer and Labour MP, represented someone in proceedings before Mintoff. The judge alleges that Abela pressured court staff because she had taxed the costs and fees of these six cases come ceduta, on a point of law - meaning at the minimum - because no amount of damages had been liquidated in court, as the compensation was determined out of court. The difference between a tax on a point of law and a tax based on the value of damages is substantial, amounting to thousands of euros.

When a staff member refused, Mintoff claims Abela threatened repercussions and raised parliamentary questions seeking details about total compensation paid to victims. He said that he involved him directly when Abela began insinuating that he was complicit in this with the then President of Malta, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, to cap the taxes at the minimum. He said that as a lawyer, Abela should have known that no judge gets involved in the way the tax for rights and expenses of a case is calculated.  The judge said that later, after Abela was appointed prime minister, he raised the dispute with Abela. He said he told Abela it was not right that he had threatened to fire one of the employees and that if Abela followed the way he directed the proceedings of the cases, Abela  would have known he was not complicit with Coleiro Preca. He said Abela told him it was water under the bridge.

Read the letter here