Magistrate Herrera should NOT be conducting the inquiry

Sitting in judgement over Magistrate Herrera

Conducting an inquiry which will determine whether the head of state is responsible or not, and how much

There is a major conflict of interest which has not yet been flagged up.

Magistrate Herrera is conducting an inquiry into a major accident in which the head of state is involved and in which 26 people were injured and an expensive car pretty much wrecked.

The head of state may well be personally liable – that remains to be seen – as she was one of the organisers, or rather, she leads the organising office.

Experts in Constitutional law have told Times of Malta (which did the right thing and asked) that the Constitutional provision which exempts the head of state from prosecution and civil liability (Times of Malta appears to think that there is such a thing as “civil prosecution”) only applies to the exercise of her duties under the Constitution, in her Constitutional role, and fundraising is not among them.

But Magistrate Herrera is currently undergoing proceedings before the Commission for the Administration of Justice, and the head of state chairs that Commission and is one of the people interrogating her, interrogating witnesses and assessing the cases (plural) for and against Magistrate Herrera.

Magistrate Herrera should be taken off the inquiry. The conflict of interest is enormous and so is the scope for trading in influence.