I will not be pressured into voting for impeachment - JPO
No comment from Mifsud Bonnici as PN pundits moot impeachment of Scerri Herrera
Government has deflected questions put forward by MaltaToday on whether it is considering moving a motion of impeachment against Magistrate Consuelo Scerri-Herrera, following public suggestions to this effect by a Nationalist pundit.
The questions were forwarded to the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, but a spokesman last night told this paper that our questions were still being considered by the Attorney General, and until late last night no reply was forthcoming.
The issue regarding impeachment was raised last Sunday by PN candidate Georg Sapiano, who seemingly flew a kite – as it were – in an opinion article he wrote on the Sunday Times, also in response to an editorial by the same paper a week earlier.
Magistrate Scerri-Herrera has been under constant attack by gossip blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia, and has asked for police protection over a series of revelations about her private life.
In his article on Sunday Sapiano singled out National MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, questioning his acquaintance with the magistrate at a time when she is supposedly presiding over a case in which he is a defendant.
Significantly, Sapiano asked what the MP would do should he be called to judge her if any of the events “lead to a vote on her impeachment in Parliament.”
Contacted yesterday, Pullicino Orlando stressed that he would decide whether to vote for or against a motion presented by government over the impeachment of Magistrate Scerri Herrera on the basis of the evidence provided to back such a motion.
“If there is enough evidence to impeach her I would definitely not hesitate to vote in favour of such a motion,” he said.
“I will not be swayed, however, by any external pressures which are being brought to bear in this case.”
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando added that “if anyone really believes I would do otherwise, then they really don’t know me and haven’t been following my political career. I abstained from voting in a similar situation involving Judge Antonio Depasquale some years ago, even though I had never met the man.”
According to Pullicino Orlando, he discussed the issue with a number of his colleagues, “and they feel the same way,” he said, adding that a “motion of impeachment is not something which any MP will take lightly, Heaven forbid!”
Pullicino Orlando hit back at Georg Sapiano stressing that “Everything he said when referring to me and my ‘connections’ with Magistrate Scerri-Herrera in his article is either a blatant lie or a disgusting and brazen attempt at twisting facts.”
He explained that he happened to be at the same dinner organised to celebrate the birthday of a mutual friend in a busy restaurant and Magistrate Scerri-Herrera happened to be seated at the same table.
Asked about being a defendant before the same Magistrate, Pullicino Orlando said that this is a libel case instituted by PL MPs Karmenu Vella and Charles Mangion following a statement he had made a week before the 2008 general elections “after being directed to do so by former PN secretary-general Joe Saliba.”
Since when is Georg Sapiano so worried about the wellbeing of Labour MPs, Pullicino Orlando asked?
“Is it possible that George Sapiano is unaware of the fact that both major political parties are coming to an arrangement regarding libel cases?”.
In his comments, the PN MP stressed that “insinuating that this is a case of top people scratching each others’ backs is despicable. One is tempted to ask if Sapiano – whom I know to be a highly intelligent person – is stooping so low as to make such assertions. Is he out to scratch someone’s back himself? Who is he out to impress? What does he gain by making a fool of himself in this way?”
Surely he must know that someone out to influence someone else would not do so openly, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando concluded.
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