Excellent idea – and not before time, either

Really, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Judges and magistrates are, like members of parliament, a category of public officer who should be exposed to scrutiny of assets in case there is something fishy going on.

If this had been done long ago, a lot of problematic cases would have been exposed before they got to the stage of imprisonment (Judge Patrick Vella) or suicide (Judge Ray Pace).

Patrick Vella was – still is – married to a woman with no job or money or her own, but they owned a very large villa in the most salubrious area of old San Pawl tat-Targa. I always used to wonder about it and bring up the subject in conversation from time to time, because it struck me as impossible that something like that could be bought off a magistrate’s (as he was then) or even a judge’s salary.

With Chief Justice Noel Arrigo, a declaration of assets would probably have made little difference, because he owned an alcohol, cigarettes and pharmaceuticals importation business. But then somebody in business should never have been made a judge, let alone a chief justice. I am glad I wrote against his appointment at the time, even though I was penalised by him in a purely retributive judgement which was then overturned by the Court of Appeal.

What a mess, really.