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 [...]
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 [...]
Council of Europe rapporteur Pieter Omtzigt who is following progress on Malta's implementations of his organisations recommendations after Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed, told Prime Minister Robert Abela today he must not interfere in the independent inquiry into her killing. "I note that the inquiry’s terms of reference state that it 'shall endeavour to conclude [...]
The “savage beating” last January of Giovanni d’Alessandro, a construction sub-contractor working in Malta, led to several arrests this week of bosses of the ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate operating in Lombardy, Italy. Phone taps by anti-mafia prosecutors discovered details of a revenge hit in Malta to recover €2,900. The arrests happened after the internal backlash within [...]
A man died trying to escape the improvised prison in Ħal Far. All we’ve been told about him is that he is from Sudan. Sudan is not just miserably poor. Just last year state security forces fired on protesters killing 117 people and injuring thousands. Security forced fired live ammunition on unarmed civilians. That’s on [...]
Three years ago this week Adrian Delia and Chris Said were shortlisted for a two-man race for the leadership of the Nationalist Party. I had written an article on The Sunday Times reviewing Adrian Delia's new way, what it meant, what his indictment of his predecessors meant, and why I did not support any of [...]
Marian Kocner was shockingly acquitted today of the charge of ordering the murder of Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak. The decision by the Slovak court is subject to appeal in front of the country’s Supreme Court. And Kocner will not walk free today. Last February he was sentenced for 19 years in prison for one of [...]
It wasn't Robert Abela's decision to have an inquiry into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. It wasn't really a decision anyone took. It was a surrender, a towel thrown, after two years of resistance by the government who refused to constitute the inquiry in spite of the call being made from the victim's family, [...]
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell Freedom of the press is the principal platform for ensuring freedom of expression and freedom of information. Unfortunately, hostility towards the media is spreading and journalists around the world are threatened by government censorship and organised crime syndicates. The murders of journalists highlight [...]
This is how far apart students are being kept as they write their exam papers. The chairs are empty because the photo is taken before the exam starts. The photo is taken in one of the official examination halls currently in use. They'll all be stuffed of people and kept that way for hours, a [...]