Justice Minister serving as PM counsel is ‘strange’

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici could not have served as legal counsel to the Prime Minister and his wife in his personal capacity as this would be in breach of code of ethics, Chamber of Advocates president George Hyzler said. “Dr Bonnici is not a practising lawyer, but a minister. Lawyers I’ve spoken to were very surprised by the Attorney General’s declaration because it’s very strange since Dr Bonnici is not the Prime Minister’s lawyer,” Dr Hyzler said. The minister, the Chamber president said, could not have acted as a lawyer in his personal capacity as this would be in breach of the ministers’ code of ethics. The Attorney General, Peter Grech, said on Tuesday that the Justice Minister served as legal counsel to the Prime Minister and his wife when the Egrant inquiry report was published, citing this as the reason why Dr Bonnici was handed an electronic copy of the report. According to Dr Grech, the minister called him personally to ask for a copy of the inquiry report which he then sent via e-mail. The information emerged during constitutional proceedings filed by the Opposition leader challenging the Attorney General’s decision to deny him a copy of the full report. When...