An 11-year prison sentence was confirmed yesterday on a school bus driver who raped, twice, an 8-year-old girl entrusted to him to bring home from school. The violence occurred several years ago when the perpetrator was 24 years old. He threatened his victim, saying he would hurt her sister if she spoke out. On multiple [...]
There was some anticipation for the court hearing today in the case brought by Repubblika challenging the attorney general for her decision not to prosecute Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad and other crooks at Pilatus Bank. There were many reasons for the anticipation. The procedure is unprecedented because it is the result of very recent changes [...]
I was still writing my commentary on a decision by Judge Christian Falzon Scerri who overruled the attorney general’s plea to be exempted from testifying in the case brought by Repubblika for a judicial review of her decision not prosecute Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad and other crooks from Pilatus Bank, when we heard that Attorney [...]
The attorney general, Victoria Buttigieg, will tomorrow morning have to take the stand and answer Repubblika’s questions on her decision not to prosecute Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad and other people indicated by a magisterial inquiry for having committed crimes at and through Pilatus Bank. In another piece after another decision on another front of this [...]
Some weeks ago, a constitutional court was confronted with two versions of a single set of facts. One of the versions was expressed in a magistrate’s decree and the other contrasting version of the same facts was given to the upper court by one of the parties appearing before the same magistrate in a lower [...]
Robert Abela swept away his interviewer’s suggestion that he may consider nominating Lawrence Gonzi as the next president. The interviewer asked if the PM would consider “making” Gonzi president. Robert Abela should have seen through the trick question but it was too smart for him. Nowhere in our constitution is the power of “making” the [...]
Another Joseph Muscat acolyte has slept on a bench in Kordin, one more in a list far shorter than it should be. Sigmund Mifsud, Labour Party election candidate, was such a Joseph Muscat man that one time he organised a concert by the national orchestra curated to perform Muscat’s favourite songs. Because this is North [...]
The death of Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici was immediately followed by songs of praise from across the political divide. He was remembered for his kindness, his humility, his altruism. All great values worthy of a much missed upstanding member of the community. But the reason Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici’s death makes newspaper headlines is that he served [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Yorgen Fenech, whom the state believes, but has yet to prove at trial, ordered the murder of a journalist, is still in possession of his assets. "No one in Malta has moved to take away from him the Portomaso complex, the Hilton Hotel, the Mrieħel towers or even [...]
In September 2013, I had been out of government for 6 months. My last job in government was as head of secretariat for the transport minister. I wasn’t myself the transport minister but after him I was perhaps the face best known for the hiccupy bus reform. Until then, and for a long time after, [...]
Let’s not conflate the determination on whether Robert Brincau did really point a gun at an ambulance driver over a dispute on which ambulance service was to transport someone who took ill on the beach with whether the director of prisons should remain in office while the gun and ambulance incident is heard in court. [...]
For generations now education has been the key to social change. Families were thought hygiene by children returning from school. Environmental awareness and healthy eating are disseminated upwards by children stinging the conscience of their parents. It is one thing to fight the mafia, by promoting the work of institutions and the effort to capture [...]
On behalf of Repubblika I'm participating this weekend in a conference organised by Italian NGO Libera discussing civil society's role in the fight against global mafias. The meeting is being held to mark 20 years (22 actually but their plans 2 years ago were scuppered by covid) since the signing of the Palermo convention, a [...]
Statement by #occupyjustice: The Web of Corruption is no Halloween Stunt Earlier tonight, #occupyjustice activists set up an illuminated spider’s web outside the office of the now-defunct Pilatus Bank in Ta’ Xbiex. Yet this was no Halloween prank. Over six years have passed since investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia began her investigations into the Pilatus Bank and, [...]
https://youtu.be/RSUqkLwgfAo
https://youtu.be/ANUXQ439X-E
Speech from last Sunday's demonstration in Valletta. https://youtu.be/_PjDUYcG3zo
Read here a rundown of the declaration of assets of ministers and parliamentary secretaries if you’re interested in the details. I’m just going to make a few remarks. Firstly, these declarations are embarrassingly amateurish. They are filled out half-heartedly but the worst thing about them is that they’re filled out inconsistently. Inconsistency is not a [...]
Before I roll out today’s posts, I want to apologise for my relative silence. After the rush of the October events, it was my turn to go down with the flu. As you might expect I will upgrade any diagnosis by a licensed doctor to the dilapidating condition of ‘man cold’. And if that’s not [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Yorgen Fenech awaits trial. And he has every motivation to avoid the appropriate sentences for the crimes he is accused of and those with which he is yet to be charged. "He has access to eye-watering resources, including conspiracy theorists, disseminators of discord and double agents who [...]