For weeks now, I’ve had that lingering sickly feeling which just won’t go away. Sartre uses the term ‘nausea’ to describe that sense of dislocation when you realise life is fundamentally meaningless and absurd. In Malta, the absurd has long since become the accepted normality. The head of the Hate Crimes Unit commits these crimes [...]

The economy ministry has just written to 69 former Air Malta pilots, made redundant a few weeks ago, to inform them the government would honour a promise made to them by former Minister Konrad Mizzi that if they were to be made redundant the government would still continue to pay them their big pilot pay [...]

I just cannot fathom why the Partit Laburista has been attacking Dr Bernard Grech ever since he declared his candidature for the leadership of the Partit Nazzjonalista. Likewise, I cannot understand the Labour Party’s defence of Dr Adrian Delia. Imagine Eddie Fenech Adami publicly rooting for Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici or Alfred Sant or their internal [...]

The word ‘Minister’ originates from the Old French menistrer “to serve, administer, attend, wait on” and directly from Latin ministrare “to serve, attend wait upon” from minister “inferior, servant”. Lately, the public has seen and heard about the work of a number of our formidable ministers. Their words and actions are for you to judge. [...]

Lawrence Cutajar is testifying this morning at the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry. He's been reminded of his former Deputy Police Chief, Silvio Valletta and Valletta's blatant conflict of interest as head of the investigation into Daphne's killing whilst being married to a minister in Joseph Muscat's government. Lawrence Cutajar is reminded that Daphne's family had [...]

Victoria Buttigieg was the State Advocate. She applied to become the Attorney General. This is not a promotion. The two positions carry the same salary. They have the same level of security of tenure. The positions both carry identical constitutional prestige. By any standard this is a lateral career move. Except the job Victoria Buttigieg [...]

In his interview with me yesterday, US financial crime blogger Kenneth Rijock said his sources tell him the United States is conducting an ongoing investigation into criminal activities connected to the sale of passports by Malta. At that interview (listen to it here if you haven’t already), I asked Kenneth Rijock to clarify how a [...]

I think that the brief exchange between Victoria Buttigieg, at the time deputy attorney general, and lawyers for Electrogas published yesterday by Matthew Caruana Galizia deserves further reflection. The exchange comes out of the leak of Electrogas emails that was sent to Daphne Caruana Galizia a little before she was killed. She was killed, it [...]

Victoria Buttigieg has been appointed Attorney General to replace Peter Grech. “Replace” is right. Some might say Peter Grech’s clone has taken office. This is a mess of incredible proportions and I’ll try to explain why. The Venice Commission said we should separate the two roles the Attorney General used to have in our rule [...]

Manuel Delia · Followup Interview with Kenneth Rijock Kenneth Rijock has been covering corruption and money laundering in and out of Malta for a long time now. This week he quoted sources tell him that Maltese cabinet ministers, now in office, are cooperating with law enforcement agencies of the United States and another unnamed country [...]

Human rights NGO Amnesty International denounced the Maltese government accusing it of “illegal tactics” in the Mediterranean to prevent the arrival of immigrants making the dangerous crossing from North Africa. Amnesty International’s statement of today says that “The Maltese government has used dangerous and illegal measures to deal with the arrivals of refugees and migrants [...]

There still are people who think there was a time when we had the best of times and all those Daphne fanatics overstated their case and brought about the end of the good days. I’m not going to have moral debates about making a choice between continuing to make money and insisting on truth and [...]

When I asked the prison director how he can explain the fact that in 2 and a half years of his incumbency, 8 people died in prison in unexplained circumstances, he, and the staff he turned to for supporting answers, gave the following explanations: Many people inside and outside prison commit suicide, more now than [...]

Nazzareno Mifsud from Qormi was found hung in his cell after an apparent suicide. He was in prison waiting for a court decision on a request by the American authorities for his extradition after living as a fugitive from US law since 1987. This website is informed Nazzareno Mifsud was found dead around 6pm on [...]

While giving evidence at the public inquiry about the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017, Alfred Camilleri, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Finance, said that in the parliament building last year “someone had told me 'look me in the eyes and say I am not involved in anything',” while people were protesting [...]

Financial crime blogger Kenneth Rijock posted last night in reaction to questions he received on a series of articles about sealed documents that continue to be filed in the docket of the US’s case against Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad. Ali Sadr and a co-accused from Iran who was never in US custody have been released [...]

Reports in The Sunday Times and Malta Today about Bernard Grech’s past issues with tax authorities do not make happy reading. He’s been late with his taxes several times throughout his career and has needed court orders chasing him for payment. He has a small one-man practice in family law which may explain his modest [...]

Within 24 hours Robert Abela twice exceeded his authority as prime minister, to protect his political interest and the personal interest of his predecessor. The personal interests of Joseph Muscat and the political interests of Robert Abela are one and indivisible. If Joseph Muscat is personally indicted for crimes or made responsible for state failure [...]

Earlier this week, prison chief Alex Dalli told me there are 25 pending inquiries into his conduct as prison director. If that’s accurate, then it’s 26 today. A 9th person has died under his watch, a 45-year old man who, officially, has died of “natural causes”. Quite how that fact has already been established when [...]

Instead of working to address its darkening reputation as a secretive financial services jurisdiction that harbours tax dodgers and money launderers, Malta is taking initiatives that are heightening the suspicions of outside investors. A recent OECD report reviewing Malta’s transparency and compliance with international standards on information sharing found Malta is less compliant with international [...]