After 353 pages of poetry, academic texts, high school civics and near irrelevancies, the magistrate finds space for immaterial considerations in his conclusions as well. In what would have made a mediocre undergraduate dissertation, Magistrate Joe Mifsud dedicates 37 pages to discuss Malta’s policies on coronavirus, migration trends in Africa, illegal smuggling and human trafficking, [...]

Murder investigations rarely have eye-witnesses. In investigative terms those are the easy ones. Most people commit a crime – a pre-meditated, pre-planned crime – with an effort to cover their tracks. They make sure nobody sees them. They make sure they’re not caught. The tough job is proving a crime when no one saw it [...]

In the midst of all the recriminations and accusations during that horrible Easter week, Neville Gafà, the bald hangover from Keith Schembri’s glory days, spoke up and confirmed to anyone speaking to him that he was asked by Robert Abela to coordinate an illegal pushback to Libya. The prime minister told the inquiry that Neville [...]

Whatever may be the cause that starts an inquiry, if the magistrate comes across evidence of another crime they are expected not to look away. As, in any case, everyone is, always. If the crime they come across is too far removed from the subject of the inquiry and could prove a distraction, the magistrate [...]

Magistrate Joe Mifsud could have made a greater effort to assess the allegations he was asked to conduct an inquiry on. Some other posts on this subject will show how. The interests of justice are best served if everyone does their job to the best of their ability and in the case of judges as [...]

Magistrate Joe Mifsud’s report criticises Repubblika for not having verified directly itself the contents of the report it was making: “It turns out therefore that before filing their report with the Police Commissioner Repubblika had not asked the Army, the Prime Minister or the Army Commander for clarifications. Nor did they verify the claims made [...]

Times of Malta reported yesterday that Magistrate Joe Mifsud got the job of conducting this inquiry because the police held on to Repubblika’s report until he came on duty. That does not necessarily mean they meant it that way. It does not necessarily mean they knew or hoped Joe Mifsud would be a magistrate that [...]

I will not bore you with the details because if you’re inclined to be interested you’re not reading these blog posts but the magistrate’s report directly. Lawyers for Repubblika referred in their complaint to a court decision that included a definition of ‘duty of care’ that they felt helped them explain to the police what [...]

 In the four weeks he gave himself to conduct an inquiry into whether anyone was responsible for the deaths of 12 people at sea, the illegal pushback to Libya of 57 and the illegal push-out from Maltese territorial waters of migrants at sea, Magistrate Joe Mifsud found time for other side investigations. One of them [...]

When someone dies at home alone and the police are called to break in and check the stench, a magisterial inquiry starts just in case there’s been foul play. Human life is sacred, they say. But it is also necessarily finite. So, whenever it ends under circumstances that cannot be immediately and fully explained, we [...]

This will be a series of posts written in the aftermath of the publication on Saturday of the inquiry conducted by Magistrate Joe Mifsud that found no crime was committed when 12 people were left to die at sea and another 57 were pushed back to Libya during the Easter week. It was also the [...]

I closed my last article with the conclusions of Magistrate Aaron Bugeja on the testimony of the representatives of ATC Administrators Inc, which the magistrate concluded as being ‘indefinite’. In fact, the magistrate based his conclusion on document he said was dated 8 August 2013. Actually it was dated 9 August. This document was an [...]

Filed by someone known to me. The Cummings and goings between London and Durham that have featured so prominently in the media, shed light on one specific issue that is particularly relevant from a Maltese perspective. We have come to be accustomed to the fact that our political leaders appoint persons of trust, but in [...]

I commented a few weeks ago about the sight of the director of our prisons designing a dress uniform himself complete with a sword. Alex Dalli harbours some really serious delusions. There’s a classic French comedy from 1993 called Les Visiteurs about a 12th century crusader and his squire who find themselves in the 1990s [...]

Robert Abela’s inexperience, insecurity and slavish populism came through most clearly yesterday. The inexperience is seen in the fact that he still thinks he governs for those who complain to him. The stories he told yesterday about someone fined because they were too close to the vegetable van or because they huddled too close together [...]