I’m cheating a bit. This comment by Corinne Vella was published on Facebook, not on the comments boards of this website. I don’t think anyone should miss this.

If you and your proteges are innocent, you need not fear life in jail, Robert Abela.

You could have denied that a member of the AFM cut the engine cable on a migrant boat and left it adrift, even as its occupants begged to be rescued or to at least save their children.

You could have answered journalists’ questions, rather than stonewalling them.

You could have said you welcome investigations into Malta’s failure to live up to its legal obligations.

You could – and should – have allowed institutions to do their job without casting a menacing shadow over them.

You could and should have done the decent and humane thing, and ensured that those people were rescued instead of being left to drown or die of dehydration and exhaustion at sea.

And you should conduct yourself as the prime minister of a democratic country

Where in the democratic world does a prime minister call a press conference, backed by his entire cabinet, to condemn a civil society organisation for daring to ask for deaths at sea to be investigated?