Italian authorities are complaining on the record that the Maltese authorities are failing to cooperate in their hunt to stop Italian mafia organisations laundering their money here. Il fatto quotidiano reported yesterday on arrests of Italian criminals believed to have used Malta as a platform for illegal gambling and fraud. The Italian authorities have frozen [...]
This is a statement issued today by #occupyjustice: A month to the day of the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, #occupyjustice delivered a bayleaf plant to the Office of the Prime Minister in Valletta and left it on the steps of Castille along with a poignant message. “Prime Minister, may this bayleaf plant [...]
Charles Scicluna is not naive. He knows just what he's up against. In a statement today the curia said "of course, in a society as politically polarised as ours, there is always the risk – not to say the certainty – that anything we say, no matter how balanced, will be perceived as partisan or [...]
When I got the invitation to visit Strasbourg for the naming of the press room of the European Parliament for Daphne Caruana Galizia I jumped at the chance at finally meeting her sons and her husband and personally tell them how I felt about their loss, about their mother and wife and about them. Of [...]
While the entire community of political views, left to right, north to south, across countries and parties, stood to criticise Joseph Muscat for dragging Malta out of democracy and fundamental rights, the spin machine in Castille revved at full throttle to drown the news into drivel and distraction. The Prime Minister "had a meeting" in [...]
I received this press release: On Thursday there will be a silent walk in honour of Daphne Caruana Galizia, who exactly one month ago was brutally assassinated in a car bomb in Malta, 16th October 2017. The walk will start from Valletta’s main entrance at 18:30, and walk through Republic Street to where Daphne’s Memorial [...]
The political parties of the European Parliament rarely agree on anything. Certainly almost never to the extent that they were today, united in disgust at Joseph Muscat's government abuse of its power. They are concerned that the law in Malta is not applied equally for everyone. That the press is not free to speak without [...]
As MEPs resoundingly endorse the PANA committee's recommendation of an investigation into Pilatus Bank, Godfrey Leone Ganado analyses in-depth the multiple FIAU reports into the institution widely believed to be a money laundering engine for the Azerbaijan regime and Maltese political figures. He starts by providing extracts from relevant reports in order to pave the [...]
Malta Labour MEPs said today they were against any investigations into whether Nexia BT, the accountancy firm belong to the prime minister's accountant Brian Tonna, complied with money laundering regulations. This in spite of the fact that such investigation was called by the PANA committee that investigated and reported on the fall-out in Europe from [...]
Former Labour prime minister Alfred Sant told me today he wanted Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi to resign from office. But then he changed his mind. I was asking him questions at a press conference he was giving with his assistants Miriam Dalli and Marlene Mizzi, the first conference ever in the newly named Salle [...]
In its report on the Paradise Leaks, Le Monde interprets the leaks from Appleby to show that the company Joe Bannister “managed, misappropriated public funds from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)”. This concerns a company registered in the British Virgin Islands that invested in a Russian mining company and applied and obtained [...]
What is it with this guy that whenever a matter of national importance comes up that he's not setting himself on the agenda he buys a First Class ticket for himself, Keith Schembri and Kurt Farrugia and goes to sell passports? While the European Parliament debates today the collapse of rule of law in Malta, [...]
I’m half way through a short trip to the European Parliament in Strasbourg as a guest of the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani who asked a number of journalists from Malta to be present when the building’s main press hall is renamed Salle Daphne CARUANA GALIZIA in the presence of her family. Yesterday [...]
Financial investigations were ordered by the University of Malta into alleged malpractice and financial misconduct by Joe Mifsud, the “Mystery Professor” currently being named in connection with investigations into alleged Russian interference in the last US presidential elections. Ten days after I first asked them, the University of Malta has finally replied to questions regarding [...]
By a regular contributor to this site: Four weeks have dragged by.... A tortuous, arduous month since Daphne's assassination rocked Malta, Europe, and the furthest corners of the globe. I keep pondering why this had to happen, searching for solace, but instead I find myself even more enraged, ravaged, empty. A sea of convoluted thoughts [...]
Mr Kenneth Ciappara, whoever he is, posts on Karol Aquilina’s Facebook wall, and sums up the thinking of the little man in such a stark and erudite manner that it cannot go unremarked. My translation follows. Translation: One would have to admit Mr Aquilina that we the people know that there is all sort of [...]
https://youtu.be/METijTu2IcM
Here's Konrad Mizzi in London on the Instagram account of Charlotte Crosby. I had to google her name because I'm not entirely au fait with English reality TV. While the European Parliament squeals it does not understand how this man is still in office, for him these are truly l-aqwa żmien. Minister Konrad [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: The call for national unity after her death is the ultimate insult. It is another characteristic attempt to plaster over the wounds she worked so hard to reveal, and for which she ended up giving her life. This is not the time to think like bees, circling [...]
My piece in today's L'Espresso. English translation below. The assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta sent shockwaves throughout the world. But not in most of Malta. After a few hours of inane platitudes from the political leaders the country mobilised again along its traditional bipolar lines. In her writings Daphne used to call them [...]