At what stage is Magistrate Monica Vella’s inquiry regarding Jason Azzopardi?

BugM put up a post on Twitter, asking the police to investigate Magistrate Monica Vella’s past judgments. Monica Vella is in the news because of a problem she had with VAT. From what has been reported, this does not appear to be a serious problem and it seems to have been resolved. There was absolutely no need to drag the magistrate to court. But, in reality, there is a political angle to this story.

The mainstream media used this story to remind readers that Magistrate Vella was a former Labour Mayor in Gozo.

Normally, when there are such stories, Jason Azzopardi is quick to seize the opportunity to comment. This time round, he has remained silent. But is Magistrate Vella, the same magistrate who is responsible to investigate Jason Azzopardi’s wrongdoings related to a property transaction in Għajn Dwieli Paola?

The Department of Lands asked the police to start investigating Jason Azzopardi way back in 2013. The inspector who was put in charge of this investigation was Jonathan Ferris. Today, this inquiry is being conducted by Magistrate Vella. After all these years, this inquiry has not yet been concluded. One would have expected the media to ask why?

In 2020, I started asking questions about this inquiry. Saviour Balzan mentioned it in one of his articles. Unfortunately, the mainstream media did not follow this story nor did it put pressure so that this inquiry is brought to conclusion. In Maltese there is an expression to state what happened: “waqgħet f’bir tas-skieken” – or “it fell into a deep well“.