Philip Galea Farrugia is the lawyer behind the arraignment of Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran and Charles Mercieca in court

Yesterday, the police arraigned Dr. Gianluca Caruana Curran and Dr. Charles Mercieca on a charge of bribery, after they allegedly offered money to Ivan Martin, a Times of Malta journalist, to start writing articles in favour of Yorgen Fenech.

For one to understand exactly what happened yesterday in court, one needs to understand the hidden dynamics behind this case.  First, if these lawyers are found guilty – this is what Philip Galea Farrugia hopes to achieve – these young men will lose their warrant. Obviously, they will then no longer be able to practise in court and consequently will no longer be in a position to defend Yorgen Fenech. One needs to remember that Philip Galea Farrugia is the main prosecutor in the case against Yorgen Fenech. He is the same lawyer who has pushed the police to issue charges against the defence lawyers of Yorgen Fenech.

Readers need to be reminded that despite Yorgen Fenech being a tycoon, his family found it very difficult to find lawyers in Malta prepared to defend him in court, to the extent, that at one point, the family was going to be forced to accept legal aid lawyers.  Caruana Curran accepted to defend him as he was a personal friend of Yorgen Fenech, apparently having known him from their school days.  

I am outlining this to show the state of terror that has been created in Malta by Philip Galea Farrugia against anyone who tries to follow one of the basic principles in democracy: offering legal assistance to an accused. At the same time, this case exposes the desperate situation in which Galea Farrugia finds himself in his mission to find Yorgen Fenech guilty at all costs.

But is this a case of bribery? From what has been reported, it is not. What is known is that it was Gianluca Caruana Curran, who offered the money to Ivan Martin while Charles Mercieca did not give any money. He was only present as a witness. The money was offered to Ivan Martin after Ivan Martin himself had written to one of these lawyers offering him his services. Therefore, where is the bribery in this case?

But why is Galea Farrugia reacting in this way? The police are accusing both lawyers on the same charge – that of bribery. In other words, the accusation of bribery was not issued against Gianluca Caruana Curran, who was the lawyer, who allegedly gave the money to Ivan Martin but also against Charles Mercieca, who was there as a witness. If this was a true case of bribery, as Galea Farrugia wants us to believe, Mercieca would have been accused of complicity. But no. Mercieca is being accused of bribing Ivan Martin. Why is Galea Farrugia behaving in this way? For those who are not conversant with criminal justice, this may appear normal practice. But it is not. Galea Farrugia is playing a dirty game here.

Should these two lawyers accept to take the witness stand, Mercieca cannot take the witness stand in favour of Caruana Curran and vice versa. They can only speak in their own defence.  This because both lawyers are facing the same charge. I am saying in case they take the witness stand because in our system the accused has the legitimate right not to testify.

In this particular case, the police were very fast in issuing charges against these lawyers. They concluded their investigations swiftly. The same cannot be said about their investigations on Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri. Despite the massive amount of recordings the police have on Keith Schembri, the police did not issue any charge against him.  Based on these same recordings, Yorgen Fenech is being kept in prison and has been in prison for nearly fourteen months now.  Not only have the police failed to prosecute against Keith Schembri but he is no longer on police bail. Therefore, why is Yorgen Fenech still being kept in prison? Why hasn’t Galea Farrugia pressed for Keith Schembri to be prosecuted in court with complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia?

The news that Gianluca Caruana Curran and Charles Mercieca were going to be prosecuted in court was broken by the media of the Catholic Church in Malta. I like to refer to this media as the media of the bishops. The church media wrote that the advocate general was going to start proceedings against these two young lawyers without mentioning by name the lawyer  from the Attorney General’s, who was pushing these charges against these young lawyers. Why? In my previous article on this subject in Maltese I asked the Church media, if by any chance, this lawyer from the Attorney General’s office was the personal friend of a notorious lawyer in Malta, who is a serial liar, who even went so far as to tell his wife that he wanted to go and spend a night on the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem? This has been confirmed in court. The lawyer in question from the Attorney General’s office is Philip Galea Farrugia.

What is even odd is the fact that the Association of Maltese journalists pronounced itself against these lawyers and in favour of Ivan Martin. But when the leader of the opposition attacked a local journalist, working with the state media, because of the tough questions that this journalist asked him, the association of Maltese Journalists remained silent.

Dr. Gianluca Caruana Curran comes from two important and established families in Malta. Both have built a name for themselves in the legal sector. I am here referring to the de Marco and the Caruana Curran. On the other hand, Charles Mercieca is new in the legal sector but has already showed his mettle. He has before him a brilliant career. However, it should be pointed out that his father was an ex-Parliamentary secretary in Joseph Muscat’s government who resigned as he wanted to continue with his medical practice. Yorgen Fenech also comes from a well-established family in Malta.

Furthermore, in my article in Maltese, I asked why the police were so quick in this case to take action. Anyone observing and following how the police operates in Malta, it is unbelievable how quick the police decided to prosecute against these lawyers when there are so many far more serious crimes which the police is still sitting on and failing to take action.

This time round, the police inspector prosecuting in this case sought to defend himself. Inspector Scerri stated in court that it was not really the police who instigated these proceedings but the request came from Philip Galea Farrugia. Galea Farrugia is the main prosecutor in the proceedings against Yorgen Fenech. This explains that I am making a correct reading of the situation and the reign of terror that is being instituted in Malta through legal means.

Interesting enough the name of James Grech is now starting to crop up in cases related to Yorgen Fenech. His name has already been mentioned in the media with regards to the case of Julian Hofstra. This man, who in the meantime has been promoted to a superintendent of police, appears to be working very closely with Philip Galea Farrugia.

Until now, the name of this inspector was always in the shadows.  Curious indeed, but it is obvious, that there is definitely an intrinsic interest in this case. There is a  person or persons who today are so powerful as to pull strings to such an extent without any constraint.  

I conclude by reminding the reader that because I have been analysing this Fenech case, I too am victim of this strategy of terror. First those who self-proclaim themselves to be in favour of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s case, started a crusade to expel me from University. Simultaneously, twice I was charged with contempt of court. The first at the request of the Caruana Galizia family. The second at the request of the assistant advocate of the Republic, Philip Galea Farrugia.

It is a clear case of conflict of interest. This is all legal dirt. The same lawyer who is prosecuting Yorgen Fenech, that is Philip Galea Farrugia has now ended up pushing charges against the same lawyers that are defending Yorgen Fenech. One reading this story will think that there are no lawyers in the attorney general’s office who could investigate and deal with such a case.