Former Labour Party deputy leader Joe Brincat has filed a judicial protest demanding that the State Advocate launches its own inquiry into the public inquiry linked to the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

This comes just weeks after the inquiry board published its conclusions, which said that the state should shoulder responsibility for the murder due to the culture of impunity that was created. 

Brincat, who is a former Justice Minister, is arguing that as a Maltese citizen he is part of the Maltese State in his justification of the judicial protest, also claiming that the board did not take an oath of impartiality. 

“The rule of law requires the inquiry to remain within its parameters, and in its parameters, it was not given charge or authority or requested to make its recommendations,” it reads.

He insisted that he could not agree with the report’s conclusions and recommendations.

Brincat also criticised board member and former Chief Justice Joseph Said Pullicino over previous declarations in an Ombudsman’s report in 2019, days after former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat made reference to the claim in a Times of Malta interview. 

The judicial protest has been met with substantial criticism, with Jason Azzopardi. the parte civile lawyer for Caruana Galizia, decried “coordinated attacks” against the inquiry, insisting that the three judges had in fact taken the oath of impartiality. 

“Robert Abela needs to decide: he’s either with God or with the Devil. It can’t be with both,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Office of the President released a statement saying that board’s recommendations “should be respected and, wherever possible, implemented.