Speaker to give ruling after consulting Attorney General

The House Privileges Committee will hear former Opposition leader Alfred Sant give evidence in the breach of privilege complaint he raised against Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt during its next meeting, after the Speaker rules whether the complainant should be allowed legal aid.

Dr Sant had raised a privilege complaint when he denied claims made by Dr Gatt in Parliament that he had information about the MITTS hacking inquiry and had tried to spin the story to a newspaper to mislead investigations.

The committee, which met yesterday to decide on the procedure to be adopted, spent practically the whole meeting debating whether both Dr Sant and Dr Gatt should be entitled to legal aid during the hearing.

While it was agreed that Dr Gatt, as the accused, should have legal aid if he so desired, the opposition said even Dr Sant, as the complainant, should be entitled to legal aid but the government side argued that this had never been done and it could result in complications.

Opposition deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia said that irrespective of what had been done before, the complainant should be allowed legal aid.

The complainant would be able to consult his counsel, who would not, however, be entitled to ask questions. He requested a ruling.

Mr Speaker Louis Galea said he wanted to consult the Attorney General on this matter and would request his advice in writing.

He would then communicate his decision to the two sides before the next meeting, when he would read his ruling, after which the hearing would start.

Earlier, Dr Galea said that the committee was not a court of law which had to decide the guilt or otherwise of a person. It had to consider if a prima facie breach was really a breach.

If it decided that there was a breach, the committee would move the matter to the House with its recommendations.

The recommendation could be to pass on the case to the police or to admonish Dr Gatt for having breached Dr Sant's parliamentary privilege.