GSD criticises Picardo over Openshaw legal challenge 

The GSD has described Chief Minister Fabian Picardo’s application for judicial review of findings made against him in the Openshaw Report as a “bitter epilogue to GSLP contradictions” and the Government’s “unwillingness” to accept “inconvenient truths” arising from the McGrail Inquiry. 

The Opposition was reacting following media reporting on court documents that show Mr Picardo is seeking a judicial review of 14 findings about him in the Openshaw Report.  

Mr Picardo’s lawyers argued that the findings were “irrational”, “unfair” and “unlawful”, and have asked the Supreme Court to declare them legally invalid and set them aside or quash them.  

Lawyers for Sir Peter Openshaw are resisting the claim, arguing it is an “extremely unusual” application with little prospect of success and that it amounts to an attempt to re-argue the merits of the inquiry report. 

The GSD said the public inquiry had already cost taxpayers more than £8m and repeated its view that it was wrong for Mr Picardo to now use public funds on what it described as a private legal challenge.  

It said Mr Picardo had promised the Inquiry would establish “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” and later said he and the Government had been “vindicated” and “exonerated” by its final report, only to then file for judicial review of findings made against him. 

“All ministers backed him to the hilt and have now welded themselves into this attack on Sir Peter Openshaw which follows on from other attacks on the Principal Auditor,” said Opposition Leader Keith Azopardi. 

“What they are doing now is no more than adding to the shameful spectacle of a Government that said in December that ‘His Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar welcomes the findings of the Inquiry’ , then pretended it had been ‘vindicated’ and added that ‘With the Report now published, Gibraltar can finally draw a line under this matter and move forward with confidence in the strength and integrity of our institutions’.”  

“It then proceeded to launch an all-out attack on the RGP as an institution in Parliament and in reality even now cannot accept those critical Inquiry findings.” 

“It is those appalling contradictions that are ‘irrational’ and that demonstrate that this GSLP Government has learned nothing from this shameful episode.” 

“Lasting change will only come when they are removed from office by the people of Gibraltar.” 

The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether the application for judicial review can proceed. 

GOVT REACTS 

Last night, the Government said the GSD was “a predictable criticism” and that its position and that of the Chief Minister remained “consistent, transparent, and focused on the rule of law”.  

In a statement, No.6 Convent Place said seeking a judicial review was not an "attack" on Sir Peter Openshaw but “a standard, lawful process” to ensure that public findings were grounded in “legal rationality”.  

It added that this was a fundamental right within Gibraltar’s legal system to challenge findings that a person believed were procedurally or legally flawed.  

“When Mr Azopardi, as a lawyer takes an appeal to the Court of Appeal for his clients, it is not an ‘attack’ on the judge whose judgement or ruling he is instructed to appeal,” the statement said.  

“Moreover, the application for permission to bring the judicial review is not a ‘private crusade’.”  

“The Inquiry examined the actions of the Chief Minister in his official capacity and the functions of the Government of Gibraltar.”  

“It is entirely standard and proper for the legal costs of a public official, acting in their official role, to be met by the public purse when those actions are the subject of an inquiry in keeping with the long established Crown Indemnity, which has been the law for decades.” 

“Additionally, there is no contradiction in welcoming the vindication of the Government’s core actions, and the failure of the conspiracy theories advanced by Mr McGrail's Counsel and rejected by the Inquiry, while simultaneously challenging specific findings that the Government believes do not meet the threshold of legal fairness.” 

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo added: “For the GSD to suggest that being vindicated by the Inquiry but challenging parts of its findings is mutually exclusive is as shallow a misunderstanding as the suggestion that seeking permission for judicial review, by way of appealing parts of the Inquiry report, is an attack.” 

“Mr Azopardi is an experienced lawyer and he knows that the points he is making are devoid of merit.” 

“He makes them to try to tarnish me only for his own political ends.”  

“I make no comment on my application for permission to bring judicial review, I am commenting only on the GSD's statement.”