The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reported last night that Jho Taek Low, charged in Malaysia for embezzling billions of dollars in the worst corruption scandal of that country’s history, acquired a Cyprus passport with the help of Henley & Partners. Henley & Partners is one of the intermediaries that helped foreign clients acquire [...]
Press reports covering the continuation of the cases against two priests who sexually abused and in one case raped an altar boy in their care referred to the brief testimony of another priest. That’s Eucharist Sultana who was the Xagħra parish priest between 1974 and 2004. He told the court he knew Joseph Sultana (accused [...]
Manuel Delia · Robert Abela, The Defender Of Journalists If Zeus were still alive, he’d have blasted Robert Abela with a freshly forged thunderbolt yesterday when he spoke from his party platform about the sacred right of journalists to ask politicians tough questions. The hypocrisy festival came after Bernard Grech’s complaint that a TVM journalist [...]
Robert Abela yesterday challenged the opposition party to back him on major policy fronts. He inherited from his predecessor an opposition that did that, so he expects no less now that there’s a different leader of the opposition. One can only hope the opposition doesn’t dance to his tune. The PN’s decision to withdraw their [...]
There's a report on this morning's rTimes of Malta about Aaron Farrugia and Clint Camilleri "working together" to manage hunting and to hire the members of the committee that is supposed to advise the government on when to allow hunting and when not to. This is supposed to be good news. Indeed the government wanted [...]
Why can't they just remember what their proper place is? Here's a letter to an elderly lady advising her of her appointment for the covid vaccine. The Deputy Prime Minister is now scheduling hospital appointments. It's as if the hospital staff, the nursing professionals, all those doctors, administrators, public health officials and epidemiologists are no [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: The European Asylum Support Office headquartered in Valletta has received several reports from migrants detained at the Lyster and Safi barracks of physical torture, beatings, solitary confinement, denial or delay of medical care and, in some cases, electrocution. The EASO says it has “discussed” these reports with [...]
The ‘talent’ attracted by Joseph Muscat’s passport-selling scheme is making world news again as Saudi state-owned companies are suing a former Saudi spy-master for embezzling billions of dollars. Saad al Jabri, Maltese citizen and for some time closest adviser to the former heir apparent to the Saudi throne, has been chased out of the Saudi [...]
The following statement was sent in by the Gozo Curia in response to this post that reported that Bishop Mario Grech was informed in 2009 that Joseph Sultana was accused of abusing altar boys in Australia. Joseph Sultana was charged last week of sexually abusing a child in Gozo when he returned from Australia. As is [...]
The Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry has almost completed the phase of hearing witnesses in open court. There’s one or perhaps a few more witnesses to hear and that’s it. There’s some of the evidence which is being heard in the criminal proceedings that is expected to go the inquiry’s way. And some other related evidence [...]
The judges presiding the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry this morning accepted a request by Repubblika to make submissions addressing the inquiry's terms of reference. The judges said this would be normal if this had been a public inquiry in England and they would be adopting the same approach. The inquiry board invited anyone interested to [...]
Whatever evidence there may or may not be linking Joseph Muscat and Keith Schembri with the plot to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia, its execution, and the attempt to ensure that those responsible for it are allowed to avoid justice, the evidence of the links between Joseph Muscat and Keith Schembri and Yorgen Fenech keeps showing [...]
Some time ago Simon Mercieca said he was shocked at me for saying that I would ignore recommendations by the magistrate hearing the evidence against Yorgen Fenech that asked that only news organisations (and not individuals) report on the proceedings in court and then only to report the facts, not to discuss them. Simon Mercieca [...]
Robert Abela dragged an official photographer yesterday to a visit to the offices of the Richmond Foundation. He published a statement full of sweet nothings about how he cares for mental health and how he got his government to give money to an NGO that works in the sector. Easy enough. It’s not like he’s [...]
I asked in a post yesterday when then Gozo Bishop Mario Grech found out a priest on his crew, Joseph Sultana, was accused of sexually abusing altar boys in Australia before he returned to Malta in 1998. The answer was in the historical record. This 2011 report quotes the Bishop of Cairns of the time, [...]
An Australian activist website that documents the covering up of child abuse cases by the Australian catholic church quotes the former Bishop of Cairns James Foley say in 2010 that he was informed Joseph Sultana abused altar boys in 1998. Joseph Sultana was charged today in the Gozo court as the magistrate heard another of [...]
Two priests were arraigned in Gozo’s court today charged with sexually abusing a minor in their care. The arraignment was anticipated with a curtain-raiser as the newspapers were told about this a day ahead. Reading the reports of the evidence given by the victim is heartbreaking. These predators took away his childhood, his health and [...]
Manuel Delia · Democratic Tyranny I’m not going to dive into the merits of the draft law being debated in Parliament to give political parties extra parliamentary seats to ensure there are more women in Parliament. It’s not that I don’t have an opinion. I have an opinion on most things, to begin with. And [...]
It’s not the gravest national scandal. Silvio Schembri directed the Department of Information to issue a partisan statement with typical One TV chestnuts of wisdom such as ‘Bernard Grech does not love his country’ or words to that effect. And they did what he told them to do. We’re not going to lose sleep [...]
Is Robert Abela himself prejudiced, sociologically uneducated and inclined to simplistic, racist explanations of things, or does he speak the way he does because he assumes his audience is prejudiced, sociologically uneducated and inclined to simplistic, racist explanations? He spoke yesterday about a statistical decline in the crime rate dodging the rather straightforward explanation that [...]