Photo: REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi I am not a lawyer. I do have academic qualifications in maritime law. I am a published author on the subject and I lecture both locally and overseas. Now that’s out of the way, let’s tell some truths. I have no idea what happened aboard the El Hiblu in [...]
If you don’t know the story of Amara, Abdul, and Abdalla, you’ve been living under a rock. Their long-drawn-out torture continues now that Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg decided to serve them with an indictment for terrorism and unlawful arrest that is punishable with a life sentence. All they did was translate between captain and passengers [...]
It feels like the pain of grey-listing by the FATF is well and truly forgotten. Malta’s pretence at fighting financial crime is being retired. Jonathan Attard, flanked by Judge Antonio Mizzi, announced a raft of measures to reduce the tools the law gave, up to now, to prosecutors to fight money laundering. Those tools are [...]
Ministers would like nothing better than for journalists to stay indoors. Few newsrooms can afford to have journalists lying in wait for politicians who do not pick up the phone. Unfortunately for politicians the Parliament building does not have an underground car park so sometimes ministers can’t avoid annoying questions. For just those situations they [...]
Sometimes you only spot the odd things after they’re gone. Consider this esoteric detail of small time Ħamrun politics. A Labour Councillor resigned without a formal announcement. The Council, the Labour Party, and the Councillor herself said bugger all. We came to know of her resignation because the Electoral Commission announced the election of her [...]
Look at this Facebook post by Jason Azzopardi this morning. It’s another situation of a magisterial inquiry finding that people have a case to answer but, perhaps because of the serious political repercussions of prosecuting the case, the Attorney General, Victoria Buttigieg, has done nothing about. In theory the process of conducting and filing an [...]
The authorities announced that Philip Galea Farrugia and four other lawyers will be appointed magistrates shortly. Philip Galea Farrugia is the Deputy Attorney General who prosecuted the Degiorgio brothers. When it came to trial there was only time for his opening presentation. When he finished and it was time for the jury to start hearing [...]
I don’t know how generous is the “generous” offer the government made to teachers. I may not be a fan of every tactical choice the MUT makes. I know that whatever the offer teachers have and whatever methods their union resorts to, to force the offer upwards somewhat, the final deal will be a far [...]
Robert Abela reacted to a suggestion from the Parliamentary Speaker Anġlu Farrugia by saying he’s “seriously considering” it. The qualifier ‘seriously’ is either over-compensation or a slip of the tongue betraying the prime minister’s habit of treating suggestions from others with utter contempt. Back story. That grotesque man-child Clayton Bartolo sits on Parliament’s Public Accounts [...]
After yesterday’s session hearing his case to have Magistrate Gabriella Vella removed from the inquiry into corruption in the privatisation of three hospitals, Joseph Muscat predictably went to Facebook, his favourite court room. He picked on a couple of issues, one of which was an answer he got from Robert Aquilina, Repubblika’s president, who was [...]
Read this report of a justification, such as it is, that tourism minister Clayton Bartolo gave for going back on the government’s promise of publishing a report into spending by the Malta Film Commission. Clayton Bartolo departs from the stock excuses the government uses to cover up information. You know the ones: ‘it’s commercially sensitive’, [...]
Joseph Muscat was in court again today in pursuit of his effort to get a court to remove Magistrate Gabriella Vella from the inquiry that Repubblika asked into corruption in the hospitals privatisation. The man thinks what everybody else thinks: that any face value appraisal of the evidence places him as a suspect in some [...]
There were two sets of laws proposed in separate announcements today. The government announced a new law criminalising virginity testing. The law makes it illegal to force a woman to test whether she’s ever had vaginal intercourse. Virginity tests are a horrible thing. They legitimise brutal violation of a woman’s dignity and excuse flagrant discrimination. [...]
It feels almost ridiculous to explain why people are angry that a block of apartment has been permitted for construction close to the Ġgantija Temples. There’s some debate as to whether the planning board that gave the approval was given the information it needed to decide. The board was told the new building is outside [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times yesterday: "Daphne Caruana Galizia summarised it in one of her more brilliant and memorable analyses published on July 3, 2015: 'There is corruption everywhere in the world, literally everywhere, and at every level. The difference is that in Malta people have a corrupt attitude towards corruption. They blank [...]
A dozen trees were stripped down in preparation for their relocation away from the car park on the side of the Mosta Rotunda. Some people were angry because they were particularly attached to those trees. They spoke of the early morning bird song tickling the ears of people waiting for the pre-dawn buses before that [...]
Worth airing this once in a while. This started four years ago today. It ended with Joseph Muscat's early retirement. Which is nice.
It looked like a fun day out. The country’s leaders of all hues and holders of all manner of office went for a cheerful “walk with the president” this Saturday. You look at their happy grins you’d think all was well with the world. Or at least, while the world went to shit, all was [...]
Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed on a Monday. The following Sunday there was a big march in Valletta. I was invited to speak at that event, but I had nothing to do with its organisation. I wasn’t an activist of any sort at the time. I was caught by the events of that week like [...]
