There are many clear and documented reasons why Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg has appointed the young 31-year old Prosecutor Francesco Refalo to lead the prosecution against Joseph Muscat and his friends in the Vitals and Steward case. His conflict of interest with regards to his relatives being close to Joseph Muscat apart from having defended in the past one of the suspects in the case, explicitly contradicts article 4 of the Attorney-General’s Code of Ethics.
Let’s take it case by case basis.
“If he has any interest in the outcome”.
His relatives are the defenders of one of the suspects. Basically, Francesco Refalo will be battling his relatives in court or a client whose relatives had previously defended. His interests should be aligned with the Office of the Attorney General but he will have a hard time projecting this publicly as he battles his relatives.
“If his spouse or cohabitant or anyone related to him till the fourth degree, has an interest in the proceedings.”
Of course, Francesco Refalo’s relatives at Refalo Advocates have an interest in seeing Ivan Vassallo of Technoline freed, not to mention his aunt’s relationship with the Labour Party whose ex-leader he will be prosecuting. Also to note is Ian Refalo’s relationship with Joseph Muscat.
“If he shall be in a situation that gives rise to lack of appearance of impartiality.”
The appearance of impartiality in this case is blatant and very explicit.
Section two of the article delineates that the Prosecutor should declare his conflicts to the Attorney-General. He should be asked whether he did declare his conflicts and whether the Attorney-General brushed them off. I hardly believe that the Attorney-General doesn’t know of his conflict of interests and as she consistently shows signs of favouring the defendants, the planting of Francesco Refalo as prosecutor in this case seems intentional.
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