Pawlu Lia, the personal lawyer of both Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, has renounced his brief of the latter.

Malta Today reports that Lia dumped his client on 5th December, a few days after Schembri’s libel lawyer Andre Sciberras announced he would stop representing Schembri.

Lia’s daughter-in-law is Magistrate Nadine Lia, who is overseeing the magisterial inquiry into Melvin Theuma’s phantom government job that was arranged by Schembri, even though her father-in-law is the personal lawyer of Schembri.

Magistrate Lia was recently assigned to oversee the compilation of evidence against murder suspect Yorgen Fenech, but recused herself after the lawyers of both the Caruana Galizias and Fenech flagged her father-in-law’s role as Schembri’s lawyer as a conflict of interest.

It is unknown at this stage whether Lia will also recuse herself from this inquiry. A question sent by Lovin Malta to the magistrate to this regard remains unanswered, while Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi refused to state whether or not he will order her to recuse herself.

Police recently launched an investigation after Theuma, the alleged middleman in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, testified in court that he was given a false government job shortly after arranging the price to kill the journalist.

Government records show that Theuma was employed as a messenger/driver at the Housing Maintenance Embellishment Co Ltd, a government company that falls under the Family Ministry.

Both Craus and Tony Muscat, the former CEO of the Housing Maintenance Embellishment Co Ltd, reportedly told police that they were following Schembri’s orders.

Schembri was arrested in connection with this probe but was later released.

Besides being Muscat’s personal lawyer, Pawlu Lia is also the government’s representative on the Commission For The Administration Of Justice, which is responsible for disciplinary action against the judiciary and lawyers.

He has also been involved in many of the court cases involving the Labour Party and its exponents, most notably facing off against Adrian Delia in his bid to publish a full version of the Egrant Inquiry.

Magistrate Nadine Lia was appointed earlier this year, an appointment which was immediately controversial given her father-in-law’s links to the ruling government. The appointment was contested in court by activist group Repubblika, with the European Court of Justice set to give its ruling on the issue.