Announcing the arrests of 8 — later 10 — Maltese citizens in connection with the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia, prime minister Joseph Muscat reminded his audience of a press conference Eddie Fenech Adami had given informing the press chief justice Noel Arrigo and judge Patrick Vella had been arrested for bribery.
Joseph Muscat this morning reminded the lawyers of those judges had argued that Eddie Fenech Adami’s press conference had prejudiced their case and the presumption of their innocence, meaning they could not get a fair trial. Joseph Muscat would not want to make the same ‘mistake’.
There are some differences between the two press conferences which need to be pointed out.
Eddie Fenech Adami informed the public of the arrests of Noel Arrigo and Patrick Vella when the police had already interrogated them and when they had already decided to arraign them. Joseph Muscat this morning say he could not reveal the identity of the arrested people because they had not yet been interrogated by the police and a decision had yet to be made whether to arraign them.
Eddie Fenech Adami had informed the Leader of the Opposition of the time before making the announcement. I tried contacting Adrian Delia this morning to ask him whether Joseph Muscat had got in touch with him before making the announcement. I did not get through to Adrian Delia but the PN made no mention of this in its statement of this morning.
Now it seems arraignments are actually imminent.
The picture is by The Times’ Jonathan Borg